Broch of Feranach
Also known asFeranach, Strath na Frithe, broch, Borrobol
DatedEst. 390 BCE–200 CE
Photo Lianachan at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Broch of Feranach is an Iron Age broch on the northern bank of the Abhainn na Frithe, near Kildonan in Sutherland, in the Highland region of Scotland, United Kingdom. It is a scheduled monument, and a typological estimate places its construction between 390 BCE and 200 CE.
The ruin stands several metres high, is in comparatively good condition and shows a complex build-up of the wall. It is also known as an Atlantic roundhouse.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
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.
Article
Broch of Feranach
It consists of a passage that widens in the middle to take the door check, and a guard cell beside it.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
The broch lies north of the River Helmsdale. Its entrance is in the west and is still roofed. It consists of a passage that widens in the middle to take the door check, and a guard cell beside it.
From the main chamber, which is littered with stones, five openings lead into recesses in the wall. The largest of these can be classed as a gallery for the stair, which turns clockwise. No visible remains of outbuildings survive around the broch.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
The date range given for the monument rests on a typological estimate, that is, on the form of the building compared with other brochs, and not on excavated evidence.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
A broch is an Iron Age hollow-walled drystone tower found in Scotland, which holds more than 500 of them. Brochs belong to the class that Scottish archaeologists call complex Atlantic roundhouses. They are concentrated in northern Scotland, with the densest groups in Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles. They are classed here with cyclopean masonry because of their heavy drystone walls, but they are Scottish Iron Age buildings and are unrelated to the Mycenaean walls that give that term its name.
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
Photographs
2 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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°13′09″ N, 3°58′10″ WFor a GPS or map app: 58.21929, -3.96935
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.
- Chambered cairnKinbrace Farm, cairn, burnt mound, hut circle and field system SSE of4000–2500 BCE
- Chambered cairnKinbrace Farm, three chambered cairns NW of, Achentoul Forest4000–2500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)cairn 160m NNW of Kinbrace Farm4000–800 BCE
- Chambered cairnchambered cairn 90m E of Kinbrace Farm4000–2500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)cairn 425m N of Kinbrace Farm4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Creag nan Caorach, four cairns SE of Kinbrace4000–800 BCE
- Cyclopean masonrySuisgill, broch 100m NNW of Corbuie390 BCE–200 CE
- Chambered cairnCarn Richard,chambered cairn 1600m WNW of Harvieston4000–2500 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q25377959wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Feranach.JPGLianachan at English WikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0
- Atlantic roundhouse Feranach.JPGLianachanCC BY-SA 3.0
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
- Kinbrace Farm, cairn, burnt mound, hut circle and field system SSE of3.3 km E
- Kinbrace Farm, three chambered cairns NW of, Achentoul Forest3.3 km NE
- cairn 160m NNW of Kinbrace Farm3.4 km NE
- chambered cairn 90m E of Kinbrace Farm3.4 km NE
- cairn 425m N of Kinbrace Farm3.5 km NE
- Creag nan Caorach, four cairns SE of Kinbrace4.4 km NE
- Suisgill, broch 100m NNW of Corbuie4.8 km SE
- Carn Richard,chambered cairn 1600m WNW of Harvieston5.0 km N
- Learable Hill,stone rows,circles,cross-marked stone & settlements5.9 km SE
- Clach na h'Uaighe,cross inscribed stone9.1 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Broch von Feranach" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Broch von FeranachCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q25377959CC0