The Scottish Broch: Enigma From the Iron Age

Any visitor to the north of Scotland will be struck by the strange ruined towers that dot the landscape. Known as ‘brochs’, these ancient conical structures are unique to Scotland, particularly the county of Caithness. For centuries, archeologists have tried to put together the clues that reveal their origins, their use and their significance. 

STRANGE STRUCTURES

Brochs were built by the Caledonian tribes during the Iron Age, between 400 BCE and 100 CE. They are arresting because of their size — the tallest remaining broch on the abandoned island of Mousa is 13.3 metres tall, making it the tallest prehistoric building in Britain. The towers were constructed with two concentric drystone walls, held together with long stone slabs, and probably had roofs of wood or thatch. Between the inner and outer walls there were passages, small rooms and stairs leading to higher levels. At ground level there was an inner courtyard, often with a stone fireplace.

NORSE WORDS

The name ‘broch’ comes from the Lowland Scots term ‘brough’, meaning a fort, and is possibly derived from the Old Norse word ‘borg’. (The more familiar Old Norse word ‘dun’, meaning fort or castle, is more commonly used in other parts of Scotland, where it is incorporated into place names such as Dundee or Dunkeld.) This etymology, together with the small entrance, lack of windows and the fact that the external walls can be four to five metres thick, led to theories that they must have been defensive structures. However, as very few weapons have been discovered on the sites, compared to the large amount of agricultural implements and cooking ware, the latest thinking among archaeologists is that they were actually just houses, with multiple families living in them. The fragments of pottery found at the sites reveal that their owners enjoyed olives and imported wines from the Mediterranean long before the Roman invasion, so it’s possible that the brochs housed wealthier tribesmen and their families, and it may have been a status symbol to live in one.

MAKING A MODEL

Although the work of archaeologists all over the world has helped us understand a great deal about our past, many puzzles remain and there are structures and objects whose use and significance we cannot understand through simple examination. One innovative method of trying to find out more about an ancient construction or artefact is to replicate it, using tools and materials of the time.

This hands-on approach is known as ‘experimental architecture’ and one of the earliest examples is Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire in the south of England. What began as an Iron Age research site became an open-air museum. It features archaeological reconstructions of ancient buildings from the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman Britain and the Anglo-Saxon period. There are also crops from pre-history and rare breeds of sheep and goats are reared there.