Northfield East Broch
The Northfield East Broch is located on the northeast tip of the Orkney island of Burray in Scotland .
description
The well-built but dilapidated Iron Age Broch has intramural niches, the walls of which have been preserved in part to their original height, but are filled with a mass of rubble. The wall is about 2 meters high in the north while it collapsed in the northeast. The broch stands on a low cliff. However, the site has a landing area where boats could be pulled into a Naust .
The broch has an outside diameter of about 19.5 m with a wall thickness of about 4 m and an inside diameter of more than 11 m. The entrance, in which there are guard cells on both sides, is to the east. A stop for a locking device has been preserved in the corridor, which widens inside.
A niche with central access is in the north. Opposite to the south there is access to another niche and an intramural staircase that climbs clockwise but is only preserved in the lower part. Another niche is located roughly in the southwest.
Outdoor structures
A specialty on Orkney is the appearance of outbuildings in some locations. Fresh water was probably brought in from a now dry stream in the west. In front of the entrance, a passage through the surrounding wall to the source was discovered by chance. The external spring was carved into the rock and is reminiscent of the water supply to Brochs on the mainland. The springs appear to have been used for both water supply and ritual use. However, there does not seem to have been any other external structures. Several stones have been preserved between the Broch and Wall that divide the space and date from the Pictish times.
The Broch had a counterpart 400 m to the west, but it was almost completely destroyed in order to build gun emplacements. Two other presumed Brochs were on the south side of the island, which got its name (Burray - Brochinsel) from them.
literature
- John W. Hedges: Bu, Gurness and the brochs of Orkney (= British Archaeological Reports. British series. 163-165). 3 volumes. Oxford, BAR 1987.
- James NG Ritchie: Brochs of Scotland (= Shire Archeology. 53). Shire Publishing, Aylesbury 1988, ISBN 0-85263-928-7 (2nd edition. Shire Publishing, Princes Risborough 1998, ISBN 0-7478-0389-7 ).
- Ian Armit: Broch Building in Northern Scotland: The Context of Innovation. In: World Archeology. Vol. 21, No. 3 = Architectural Innovation , 1990, ISSN 0043-8243 , pp. 435-445, JSTOR 124840 .
Web links
Coordinates: 58 ° 52 '25.2 " N , 2 ° 53' 11.2" W.