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

Round Howe

Broch (Destroyed)

Miscellaneous

In 1862 Petrie dug this tumulus (RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY50NW 8) and found the low (2' to 2' 6") remains of a broch measuring 19' 8" internally, with walls varying from 8-10' across containing two 1'11'-2' wide (one had a short 3' entrance at right angle) by 2' high passages in them. There was a wallface surrounding the broch at 2' distance and the whole stood on a 90' diameter mound. Both had entrance gaps ~ENE but slightly offset. All this stood within two banked arms with a western gap of 15' and a large obstruction blocking the east end (total enclesd area 225' by 175' according to Hedges, banks 24' by 2'6" high). Between broch and embankment varied from 66-78' With its surrounding banked enclosure the nearest parallel is between here and Dingishowe where the Campston/Venikelday site is a broch with ring-ditch on current thinking. There are passages on Petrie's plans but no guard cells, which means either it survived to the base of the 2nd level as Hedges thought or only remained to the bare minimum below where they would have been. Shortly before 1880 the modern road passed through the site, though locals spoke yet of passages beneath the road. The 1946 excavation on the Langskaill side found a "tomb with burnt bones" without saying if it came from the broch or the mound it stood on, but would have said if this were a cist, so what was it - The Howe had a Neolithic grave turned into a souterrain. From the extensive geophysics even outside of the enclosure the site seems extensive and probably multi-period, and the (2.8 by 0.7m) LBA flat-bottomed ditch dug at the mound's base this century reminds me that antiquarians thought Campston to be a henge on account of its similarity to the Ring of Bookan. Easiest to call it a broch really! wideford Posted by wideford
13th March 2007ce
Edited 26th June 2007ce

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