An Dun, broch, Berriedale
DatedEst. 390 BCE–200 CE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
The cyclopean masonry known as An Dun, broch, Berriedale lies in Highland, United Kingdom. Its entries are Wikidata item Q56668519; the position in the catalogue is 58.2039° N, 3.5273° W.
Built from structured records, not from an articleSources and licences
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
About An Dun, broch, Berriedale
This kind of monument hereSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
A broch is an Iron Age hollow-walled drystone tower found in Scotland, and Scotland holds more than 500 of them. Brochs belong to the class that Scottish archaeologists call "complex Atlantic roundhouses". There are approximately 571 candidate sites, concentrated in northern Scotland, with the densest groups in Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles. The Atlas files them under "cyclopean masonry" because of the heavy drystone walls, but they are Scottish Iron Age buildings, unrelated to the Mycenaean walls that give that term its name. The full article, “Scottish brochs”, follows below under About this kind of monument.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
The Atlas shows 390 BCE to 200 CE for this site, but that is a regional estimate for this kind of monument, not a date for this particular cyclopean masonry. No excavation, radiocarbon sample or other measurement is recorded for it, so the real age could fall anywhere within the range, or outside it.
The range rests on this regional background (source: the Wikipedia article “Broch”): The first brochs may have been built circa 300 BC and most of the towers were built in the 1st centuries BC and AD; a sheep bone from Old Scatness Broch dates to between 390 and 200 BC.
Landscape and neighbours
Counting outward from An Dun, broch, Berriedale, there are 3 catalogued sites within 1 km, 13 within 5 km and 28 within 10 km, and 15 of them are also classed as cyclopean masonry. It is one of 157 cyclopean masonry records among the 556 sites catalogued in Highland, United Kingdom.
Nearest to it are Dun Burn, cairn 200m NE of An Dun Broch (0.2 km north-east, megalithic mound); Berriedale Water, cairn 250m NNW of Millery (0.9 km north-east, megalithic mound); Tulach Bad a Choilich,broch 670m NW of Cnoc Fionn (0.9 km south, cyclopean masonry); Rinsary, broch and post-medieval farmstead 300m SSW of, Berriedale (2.1 km south-east, cyclopean masonry). The catalogue is assembled from open records and is not complete, so unrecorded monuments may lie closer.
Records and protectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Wikidata lists the site with the heritage status scheduled monument. The open records for it are Wikidata (Q56668519), where corrections and further identifiers can be added. Access varies from open common land to private fields; check local access rules, ask where needed, and take care not to damage the monument.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
This page was built automatically from Wikidata (CC0), the heritage register named above and the regional article “Scottish brochs”, written for the Atlas from the Wikipedia articles it cites (CC BY-SA 4.0), plus distances and counts computed from the catalogue coordinates. It contains no AI-written text.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Scottish brochs
A broch is an Iron Age hollow-walled drystone tower found in Scotland, and Scotland holds more than 500 of them. Brochs belong to the class that Scottish archaeologists call "complex Atlantic roundhouses". There are approximately 571 candidate sites, concentrated in northern Scotland, with the densest groups in Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles. The Atlas files them under "cyclopean masonry" because of the heavy drystone walls, but they are Scottish Iron Age buildings, unrelated to the Mycenaean walls that give that term its name.
The finest is the Broch of Mousa in Shetland, the tallest broch still standing and among the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe; it is thought to have been built about 300 BCE. Midhowe Broch on Rousay in Orkney has an internal diameter of 9 metres within a wall 4.5 metres thick, which still stands more than 4 metres high. At the Broch of Gurness on Mainland Orkney, a village grew around a tower that probably once reached about 10 metres; settlement began between 500 and 200 BCE, and Robert Rendall found it in 1929.
Dating is not secure. Most brochs may have been built from about 300 BCE; a sheep bone at Old Scatness in Shetland dates to between 390 and 200 BCE. The old view that brochs were defensive refuges for people and their livestock has been challenged: it has been argued that they were the "stately homes" of their time, showing the status of important families, though there is no archaeological proof, and the purpose may have combined defensive, offensive and symbolic functions.
When visiting, look for the two skins of drystone wall with a stair or gallery between them, and for the settlement of smaller houses around the tower.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Broch, Wikipedia: Mousa Broch, Wikipedia: Dun Carloway, Wikipedia: Midhowe Broch, Wikipedia: Gurness Broch, Wikipedia: Cyclopean masonry · CC BY-SA 4.0
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 390 BCE–200 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for cyclopean masonries in United Kingdom; this site has not been dated itself. The first brochs may have been built circa 300 BC and most of the towers were built in the 1st centuries BC and AD; a sheep bone from Old Scatness Broch dates to between 390 and 200 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 58°12′14″ N, 3°31′38″ WFor a GPS or map app: 58.20385, -3.52726
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Dun Burn, cairn 200m NE of An Dun Broch4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Berriedale Water, cairn 250m NNW of Millery4000–800 BCE
- Cyclopean masonryTulach Bad a Choilich,broch 670m NW of Cnoc Fionn390 BCE–200 CE
- Cyclopean masonryRinsary, broch and post-medieval farmstead 300m SSW of, Berriedale390 BCE–200 CE
- Cyclopean masonryTulloch Turnal390 BCE–200 CE
- Chambered cairnLangwell House,cairn 400m SW of,Berriedale4000–2500 BCE
- Cyclopean masonryLangwell Tulloch390 BCE–200 CE
- Menhir (standing stone)standing stone 410m SSE of Upper Borgue2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q56668519wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Dun Burn, cairn 200m NE of An Dun Broch0.2 km NE
- Berriedale Water, cairn 250m NNW of Millery0.8 km NE
- Tulach Bad a Choilich,broch 670m NW of Cnoc Fionn0.9 km S
- Rinsary, broch and post-medieval farmstead 300m SSW of, Berriedale2.1 km SE
- Tulloch Turnal2.4 km SW
- Langwell House,cairn 400m SW of,Berriedale2.5 km S
- Langwell Tulloch2.7 km S
- standing stone 410m SSE of Upper Borgue2.9 km NE
- Cnoc Bad Asgaraidh, chambered cairn 570m E of, Langwell2.9 km SW
- Upper Borgue,broch3.0 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
This page is assembled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a tradition article paraphrasing Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). No article exists for this site, and nothing here is written by a model.
- Wikidata Q56668519CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0