This broch was 'reconstructed' by the Victorians back in the 1850s'. I wasn't too happy to learn this from the information board which you'll find just before the entrance but as soon as I started to wander about I began to get a sense that this was an ancient site. It stands on a promontory of land which flows out into the loch that is so striking it is an obvious place for settlement and for defense. Bizarrely enough Lerwick has encroached upon this special place so much that as you gaze back along the path you see the main road into town, the garage, A Safeway Supermarket and as you turn your eyes out across the loch you see the new sports centre built with Shetlands new Oil wealth. Fortunately, if you gaze straight ahead across the loch to the distant hills you can see back into the past and get a sense of what it might have been like to arrive in this place perhaps after a long journey.
This site was occupied in several periods, originally late Bronze age between 700 - 500BC. Firstly a simple farmstead which expanded to a blockhouse (fort) and then by a huge circular brock. A population of around 60 lived in this little fortress. Later, 2nd century occupation is shown when a wheelhouse was added.
Note that (as the reporter points out in 'fieldnotes') the site at Clickimin doesn't relate to the pre-historic / neolithic period this web site really concerns itself with. Nevertheless it is worth seeing if you're there.
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Posted by twinny
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