Hurly Hawkins Broch View all content for Hurly Hawkins

This broch is on private ground in the gardens of a house in the village of Liff, just outside Dundee. Permission must be sought from the owner to view. The broch is very difficult to discern initially, being heavily overgrown, but the general layout is visible. It forms part of what was described as a "multi-phase occupation site comprising a promontory fort, a palisaded enclosure, a broch and a souterrain", and was excavated by D.B.Taylor between 1958 and 1967. The only pre-broch find was a small perforated bone plate. The broch itself was of 12m diameter with walls 5-6m thick. Remains of a mural chamber or stairway on the north were found. The entrance was to the south west. Finds from the broch dated it to the end of the first or beginning of the second century A.D. and included a possible patera-handle amongst other quantities of metalwork, and a bronze spiral finger-ring now in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh. Finds in the souterrain included pottery similar to that found at Ardestie and Carlungie (both in the Souterrain Index). 1st and 2nd century Roman pottery was also found, and it has been suggested that the earlier pottery came from the broch and the later from the souterrain.

Posted by nickbrand 27th October 2002ce

Comments (1)
Some of the dressed stone blocks from the Hurley Hawkin were used to construct a cross which stands in the 1933 extension to Liff Parish Church cemetery. A plaque next to it displays the following information "Consecrat. + 11 June 1933. Built of stone from the "Hurley Hawkin" temp: Alexander 1 1107 - 1124 ABD" The belief at the time was that the Hurley Hawkin was the ruin of a castle built in the time of Alexander 1st.	Posted by Howburn Digger 19th October 2009ce
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