Broch from Mousa
On the west coast of the island of Mousa (moor island), which can be reached from Sandwick, on Mousa Sound on the Shetland Islands in Scotland stands the Broch of Mousa , the best preserved brochure of all. It was built before the turn of the century and is still over 13 m high. It has a base diameter of around 15 m, with the interior only having a diameter of around six meters. In the extremely thick masonry there are three large chambers, each with three or four small niches. Three other larger niches can be reached from the interior. In the 4.5 m thick wall below there is a staircase that leads to the wall. There is no reference to previously higher floors, which are often postulated. At Broch there was once a wheelhouse that has now gone out .
Literary
The love story between Bjorn Brynjulfsson and Thora, Roald's daughter, is connected to the brochure. Runaway in Norway , their ship ran aground in a storm off Mousa, where the lovers got married and lived in the Broch for the winter. Fearing parental revenge, they moved to Iceland, where the skald Egill Skallagrímsson took them in. 200 years later, Earl Erland kidnapped his lover, the widow of Maddad Earl of Atholl, whose wedding her son, Earl Harald Maddadarson, wanted to prevent. He besieged the Broch without being able to take it and had to agree to the marriage.
In Ian Rankin's crime novel "The Murderer's Souvenir" (Orig. Black and Blue, 1997), the protagonist Detective John Rebus seeks a witness in Mousa Broch who is hiding there.
literature
- Ian Armit: Towers in the North. The Brochs of Scotland. Tempus, Stroud 2003, ISBN 0-7524-1932-3 , pp. 18-19.
- Ian Armit: Broch Building in Northern Scotland. The context of innovation. In: World Archeology. 21 ( Architectural Innovation ), 1990, 3, ISSN 0043-8243 , pp. 435-445.
Web links
- Information about the Brochs (in German) ( Memento from August 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
Coordinates: 59 ° 59 ′ 42.8 " N , 1 ° 10 ′ 55.4" W.