|
Broch
|
|
|
Not far from the edge of town, down below Berstane Farm follow the track that goes to the right, the direction of Inganess Bay. At the far corner of the grounds of Berstane House is a dovecot, a square masonry tower with a stepped back at the top. From here look diagonally acoss to the familiar shape of an eroded broch on the small headland at the bottom of a field. There are supposed to be other settlement remains in the vicinity but I'm not aware of having seen any.
Coming down to it I saw a big scoop in the centre of my field of view which I thought to be the broch interior with small stones around the edge revealed. But from the top of the mound I saw this to be a scoop excavated from the ege rather, for here I was definitely in the region of the interior. This broch is of a similar size and situation to Ingshowe but with fewer large stones exposed to view.
CANMORE said a section was exposed 10' up the cliff face and I had seen on the left an easy way down to the beach. The masses of seaweed made further exploration dangerous and I would advise not going alone. Carefully I made my way around to the sandy area at the foot of the cliff supporting the broch. Here the upper part looks very similar to Ingshowe (right down to the stones pointing out at right-angles over the cliff) except that the base isn't well delineated - probably owing to its being built upon well inclined strata.
From Berstane Farm a track does run straight down to the shore, but for the infrequent visitor this route is most problematical for the aforementioned reason.
|
Posted by wideford
5th April 2004ce
Edited 27th June 2007ce
|
|
Log in |
Register
Top of page