Knockinnon,broch
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
Overview
Knockinnon Broch is an Iron Age broch between Dunbeath and Latheronwheel in the Highland council area of Scotland, United Kingdom. It is a scheduled monument. The catalogue dates it by typological estimate to between 390 BCE and 200 CE.
The remains form a conical, grass-covered mound about four metres high and about 20.4 metres in diameter. The broch was not opened in historic times.
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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
Knockinnon,broch
The broch lies about 440 metres from the north coast of the Moray Firth, roughly two kilometres north-east of Dunbeath and two kilometres south-west of Latheronwheel.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
The broch lies about 440 metres from the north coast of the Moray Firth, roughly two kilometres north-east of Dunbeath and two kilometres south-west of Latheronwheel. The A9 runs along the coast and passes the broch at a distance of a few metres. To the north-east lie the ruin of Knockinnon Castle, Upper Latheron Broch and the chambered cairn Upper Latheron Cairn. To the south-west stand the listed farm The Lappan and the Laidhay Croft Museum.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
The remains are an earth-covered, grass-grown mound. On the north side, about 3.6 metres from the presumed centre of the structure, a wall remnant is exposed. It stands about 1.8 metres high on the inner face and 3.0 metres high on the outer face.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
A broch is an Iron Age hollow-walled drystone tower found in Scotland, which holds more than 500 of them. They are 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
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°15′37″ N, 3°24′19″ WFor a GPS or map app: 58.26040, -3.40524
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.
- Cyclopean masonrybroch 230m E of Upper Latheron390 BCE–200 CE
chambered cairn 530m ESE of Upper Latheron4000–2500 BCE- Chambered cairnchambered cairn 580m SE of Latheronwheel House4000–2500 BCE
broch 500m W of Latheronwheel House390 BCE–200 CE- Cyclopean masonrybroch 450m S of Latheronwheel Bridge390 BCE–200 CE
Greentulloch,broch 180m NE of390 BCE–200 CE
Dun Beath,broch,Dunbeath390 BCE–200 CE- Cyclopean masonrybroch 180m SW of Bridge of Rhemullen390 BCE–200 CE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q56666394wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- broch 230m E of Upper Latheron1.0 km NE
- chambered cairn 530m ESE of Upper Latheron1.0 km NE
- chambered cairn 580m SE of Latheronwheel House1.4 km NE
- broch 500m W of Latheronwheel House1.5 km N
- broch 450m S of Latheronwheel Bridge1.9 km NE
- Greentulloch,broch 180m NE of1.9 km NW
- Dun Beath,broch,Dunbeath2.2 km W
- broch 180m SW of Bridge of Rhemullen2.3 km W
- chambered cairn 610m NNW of Bridge of Badnagie2.4 km NW
- broch 450m NW of Bridge of Rhemullen2.6 km W
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Knockinnon Broch" (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): Knockinnon BrochCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q56666394CC0