The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Round Howe

Broch (Destroyed)

Fieldnotes

The site lies either side of the road going down to Mine Howe. Part of it lies by the plantation and looks fairly intact, but as everything is hidden under huge grass tussocks it is unrevealing, and only one trench was placed here. Might have done better to strip just the turf back over the whole area this side of the road.

There is a long straight looking bank maybe a metre high, roughly parallel to the road, and then a further bank or banks behind this 'pushing' the plantation back in a curve. If this is the 'embankment' then the gap between the end of the arms should be towards the far end of what you see. In the plantation behind is a remaining section of natural burn. Before you reach the main body of the site a wide water channel goes under the road.

On the Langskaill side the far bank the part by the road incorporating larger stones seems to have excessive height for the present usage, and might have been associated with Round Howe or be re-used stones from it. This RH side of the road is where the owners dug in 1946. Over the mid-19th century drystane wall from the roadside the workers left a cut alongside the wall. Perhaps one could still find part of the entrance to the broch (or that in the mound) close by this cut. Climbed a fieldgate onto the site. The start of the 'arms' should be about the lower right region as you look at it - on my last visit the land between here and the channel was water-logged. Trench remains complicate the viewing and the "Mine Howe location map" shows earthworks over an 150m wide area (unfortunately the geophysics has no scale in the Mine Howe publication).

Away from the mound what looks like an inner bank is re-deposited material and the rise to the north is natural. You can still see the level area between mound and enclosure easily. There are several stumpy earthwork sections at the Round Howe end of Lang Howe which may properly belong to this site.
wideford Posted by wideford
13th March 2007ce
Edited 26th June 2007ce

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