Broch of Yarrows
Also known asCairn of Yarrows · Loch of Yarrows,broch on SW side of,Thrumster · South Yarrows
DatedEst. 390 BCE–200 CE
Photo Bubobubo2 · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Broch of Yarrows, also recorded as the Broch of Yarhouse, is an Iron Age drystone tower at Thrumster in Caithness, in the Highlands of Scotland. It stands west of the settlement and of the Loch of Yarrows, on boggy ground, and is a scheduled monument.
The broch is probably of the first half of the 1st millennium AD. Two long cairns lie uphill of it, and the whole group of monuments is served by an archaeological trail.
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 Yarrows
The level of the loch is now higher than it was about 2000 years ago, when the broch was built, and the surrounding ditch was probably already filled with water at that time.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
Inside the entrance, on the right-hand side, the broch has an unusually long guard cell. Opposite it a stair led to the upper level, which no longer exists. Towards the west of the interior an off-centre doorway gives access to the only intramural double cell, which is T-shaped; its right-hand half is constricted and widens at the end into a heart shape. On the east side lies a second, possibly later, longer entrance (A) without any internal fittings.
Between the broch and the surrounding ditch stood stone pillars that supported the roof of a souterrain, whose entrance (B) lies in the centre of the broch. Further structures can be made out in the surroundings. The level of the loch is now higher than it was about 2000 years ago, when the broch was built, and the surrounding ditch was probably already filled with water at that time.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
The broch was excavated in the middle of the 19th century. The two long mounds uphill of it were excavated in the same period.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
The southern mound is 73 m long and is the better preserved of the two. One of its short ends is concave (a horned cairn), and the chamber lies at the broader eastern end. The northern mound is built in a similar way.
The archaeological trail around the loch also leads to a number of other monuments: beehive huts, five burial mounds, a hillfort, standing stones and stone rows. The Broch of Brounaban lies to the east, between the Loch of Yarrows and the A99 road near Borrowston.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): YarrowsCC 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. There are approximately 571 candidate sites, concentrated in northern Scotland, with the densest groups in Caithness, Sutherland and the Northern Isles.
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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2000
Der Spiegel des Sees liegt heute höher als vor etwa 2000 Jahren, als der Broch gebaut wurde.
Source
Photographs
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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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°22′28″ N, 3°11′04″ WFor a GPS or map app: 58.37439, -3.18431
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 cairnlong cairn 220m NW of South Yarrows4000–2500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Loch of Yarrows, cairn 550m ENE of South Yarrows4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Loch of Yarrows, two cairns 700m ENE of South Yarrows4000–800 BCE
Battle Moss, Loch Of Yarrows, stone row and cairn4000–800 BCE- Chambered cairnMcCole's Castle, chambered cairn4000–2500 BCE
- Chambered cairnCairn Reain, chambered cairn4000–2500 BCE
- Chambered cairnCairns of Warehouse, cairns at N end of Warehouse Hill4000–2500 BCE
- Cyclopean masonryBrounaban390 BCE–200 CE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q747937wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Yarrows broch 05.jpgBubobubo2CC BY-SA 3.0
- Broch at Loch of the Yarrows (detail). - geograph.org.uk - 1502778.jpgsylvia duckworthCC BY-SA 2.0
- Broch at Loch of the Yarrows. - geograph.org.uk - 1502769.jpgsylvia duckworthCC BY-SA 2.0
- South Yarrows Broch - geograph.org.uk - 414703.jpgBilly ShearerCC BY-SA 2.0
- Yarrows broch 01.jpgBubobubo2CC BY-SA 3.0
- Cairn (modern) and "Round-house" at Yarrows. - geograph.org.uk - 1502704.jpgsylvia duckworthCC BY-SA 2.0
- Hill-fort and "Round-house" at Yarrows. - geograph.org.uk - 1502689.jpgsylvia duckworthCC BY-SA 2.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- long cairn 220m NW of South Yarrows0.4 km W
- Loch of Yarrows, cairn 550m ENE of South Yarrows0.4 km E
- Loch of Yarrows, two cairns 700m ENE of South Yarrows0.6 km E
- Battle Moss, Loch Of Yarrows, stone row and cairn0.7 km NE
- McCole's Castle, chambered cairn0.8 km E
- Cairn Reain, chambered cairn0.8 km N
- Cairns of Warehouse, cairns at N end of Warehouse Hill1.4 km S
- Brounaban1.5 km E
- broch 260m S of Borrowston2.0 km E
- Watenan,broch 140m N of,Ulbster2.3 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Yarrows" (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): YarrowsCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q747937CC0