Take the road that lies west of the Loch of Bosquoy that runs from opposite the Shunan lochans past the Merkister Hotel to end near the Harray post office. Approaching the bend at Mill Cottage looking due south the broch lies on a promontory sticking west into the Loch of Harray.
When the Knoll of Burian was partly excavated in 1866 they found a large "brough", but though the rest was being laid bare the outworks were left alone. Farrer found "underground cupboards, partly beneath the floor of the main circular chamber" and three steps he thought to have been part of an (?intra-mural) staircase. A sketch and plan by George Petrie show what are interpreted as a hearth and tank in the central chamber with a built wall dividing this from a long
curving room on the north side and 3 small cells ? sleeping-quarters. Now some think it a wheelhouse, which is a round house divided into compartments by radial slabs, though.the few features have been compared to Burroughston on Shapinsay and Bu in Stromness.
RCAHMS NMRS record no. HY21NE 29 is 62' across with an internal diameter of 32', Petrie calls it a broch with outworks (it has subsequently been robbed of stone for building dykes). A line of boulders crosses the neck of the promontory, and as there is no mention of Farrer coming across evidence of Viking use I imagine this is original [or possibly comes from turning it into a promontory fort as water levels rose]. Ignore the modern wall across the centre. Facing you, in the NE quadrant, there is an inner wall face fragment with a mural cell and a door entrance On the other side, in the SE quadrant, there is a 20' wall arc standing two foot high and some eight feet from the broch tower.
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Posted by wideford
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