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Broch of Lingro

Broch (Destroyed)

Fieldnotes

When I walked the coastal path by the distillery in February, the field between it and Lingro had been newly ploughed and seeded. As I result soilmarks and exposed stone plainly showed where the broch and settlement had been. On the flat section you could furthermore see the contrast between the area where the broch tower had been and that of the outworks, all picked out in stone scatter besides. Stone scatter was seen on the rise above and again on the rise above that, but walking further along I noticed when alongside these that the stones in the higher rise were a magnitude larger than those in the lower scatter so perhaps not to be associated with the broch. These two sets end where there is a long natural rectangular bite of a cliff, the fieldwall following the three sides.

A few years back I noticed stones projecting from the modern ground surface by the NE end about a metre from the wall (i.e. closer to the cliff), mostly darker than those of the fieldwall, that appeared to be the remains of a previous wall. This is much reduced but a higher level than the presumably submerged wall foundation. Since the footpath has been renovated several further stretches of this wall/feature have been exposed. On one by the northern side (HY43370871) 6-12" high I now found a ~4x1.2m collection of stones far bigger than those making up either wall - ranging from 23-29½ by 16-23" by 3-10" - and definitely not from either, clean of lichen as well. Not sure whether I missed these before or the path renovation has disclosed them, but they are certainly not there naturally and were once presumably structural.

Coming back I noticed in the top of the modern wall further down (HY43420872) what could be a pivot stone. It measures 15x5½x5" and the circular depresssion is 1¼ across and 1" deep, which is too small for a main broch door.
wideford Posted by wideford
24th May 2006ce
Edited 26th June 2007ce

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