
rim of broch mound with Grandag bay behind
rim of broch mound with Grandag bay behind
view across top of unexcavated half from fence
full depth section across mound
behind showing proposed broch and ringwork
settlement other side of track looking up to present roadside farm
close in on part of settlement alongside track
Seen from behind it does resemble a broch with tower slightly more. What is certain to me is that it is nothing like the Ring of Bookan, the ringwork is just that. You can see that how close it would have been to the water’s edge when sea-levels were higher. This time I had a closer look at the part of the site the other side of the farmtrack. Though overall lower than the putative broch side there is evidently a lot more going on in terms of structures, many obvious lumps and bumps. Doesn’t need much of a look to see where a stream passed by the edge of the site, a circumstance that by now feels diagnostic to me of a cliffside broch (those further uphill we presume to have had wells, though we never did find one at The Howe and joked that it lay under the site hut!). There do, though, appear to be a couple of very small bumps the other side of this . It is possible the site continues up to the farm roadside as there are probable structures just below there, either that or a slght relocation in later times.
RCAHMS NMRS No. HY50SW 1.
Described as a possible broch within a ringwork this site reminds me now of Tingwall, something extensively modified. The photos I shall add only show the main portion – it has been cut through by a ‘modern’ track and what remains on the right of the track is rather inconspicious. Difficult to make sense of the transect, this ‘wall’ appears too linear for a circular structure.
It lies off the main road about half-way between Toab and Campston and on the same side of the road, and though called after the latter it actually lies on a track going down to ?Venikelday. It may be of significance that it lies roughly half-way between the Mine Howe and Dingieshowe sites.
In 1841 the broch, or whatever, was a cut-down cone 16’ high and 90yds in circumference. The ringwork surrounded it at a distance of 20 yards.
Petrie descibes a raised platform surrounded by a circular ditch. There were two central stones that he believed originally lay upon one another. He compared this site in its entirety to the Ring of Bookan.