Sallachy Broch

Also known as:
Sallachadh
Nearest town:
Dornoch (32km E)
OS reference:
NC549092
OS sheet:
16
Latitude:
58° 2' 53.73 N
Longitude:
4° 27' 31.17 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Sallachy Broch by A R Cane

View from the interior across Loch Shin towards Lairg. Quite a prospect and intervisible with Ferry Wood Broch too.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Nov 23, 2017
Image of Sallachy Broch by A R Cane

Panorama showing the back of the tower. The wall gap to the left may have been a staircase to the next level.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Nov 23, 2017
Image of Sallachy Broch by A R Cane

Panorama showing the entrance/exit, interior and gaps between the inner and outer dry stone walls.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Nov 23, 2017
Image of Sallachy Broch by A R Cane

Panorama of the entrance which faces to the South East.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Nov 23, 2017

Articles

Sallachy Broch

B
broch the badger Oct 13, 2006

Easy enough to find with an OS map (Explorer 441). Respect the polite request of the estate and leave your car by the gate. Go through the double deer gate and follow the estate road till you reach a bridge over a burn. The broch is on your right down toward the loch side. There is quite a bit of standing masonry with plenty of broch type stuff to stick your nose into. Be warned bring plenty of DEET if you visit in the small bitey thing season.

Folklore

Sallachy Broch
Broch
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 25, 2017

Just to warn you, if you see a horse here. Just leave it alone.

The Seven Herds of Sallachie and the Water-horse.

Lang syne, when men, and flocks, and herds were plenty in Sutherland, there were seven herds watching their flocks by Loch Shin, and it was evening. They all quarrelled among the others. Said one herd to the other, “That is my father’s horse.” “No, it is my father’s horse”: and they fell to fighting (for the horse looked different to each of them). The first jumped up. “There is room for two,” said the second, and jumped up also. The others were angry.

“It is a bonny horse, too,” said a girl that came by, when they were all up but one. And she patted its shining skin, but her hand stuck to it.

“Oh! Annach,” cried her brother,“will ye die with the others, or want your hand?” “Oh! take off the hand and let us run.”

So he took the hand off, and they two ran home, and the seven herds of Sallachie were never seen again.

Mr Young, Lairg.

It’s a bit ghastly isn’t it, with hands being chopped off and magic water horses willfully drowning people. Excellent.

From Miss Dempster’s “The Folk-lore of Sutherlandshire” in The Folk-Lore Journal volume 6.

Sites within 20km of Sallachy Broch

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