Caithness Brochs Project have recently updated their website with details and images relating to their intent to build a 'modern' broch.
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Farmer fined for digging up ancient 'burial cairn'
A farmer has been fined £18,000 for destroying a Neolithic site on Skye.
Duncan MacInnes used the earth from Upper Tote Cairn to help with a shed-building project elsewhere on his land.
Full report can be read here.
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September 12,2021
Rather embarrassingly, on returning from a trip to the Isle of Skye, I discovered on checking the GPS data in my photographs, that I had not in fact visited Acairseid an Rubha promontory fort. I had in fact visited a headland on the opposite (north) side of the bay! Fortunately, I found that two of the coastal scenes I had photographed did in fact include Acairseid an Rubha and they are presented above.
Acairseid an Rubha is accessed from the car-park at the end of the A851 from Broadford, where a wide metalled track heads to Point of Sleat. After two kilometres, at the point where the signed path heads sharp left southwards towards Point of Sleat, the track continues towards the west coast. It is now under a kilometre to the fort.
As for the fort, I hope to visit it next time I'm on Skye. Very little seems to be known about it, and even Canmore has nothing significant to state other than that it is a "possible dun".
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Visited: June 23, 2021
Tulach Beag is a dilapidated broch which can be visited as part of an excursion to the much more impressive Tulach Mor. As the remains of this broch have a fairly low profile, it is recommended to follow the route to the nearby Tulach Mor, then walk about 460 metres northwards along the bank of the River Thurso. As you approach, Tulach Beag becomes evident, just 40 metres inland from the river. No trace of walling, outer or inner, remains here.
Route Map
The map of Causeymire Windfarm on the Tulach Mor page actually shows the location of this broch.
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Visited: June 23, 2021
Tulach Mor is the southernmost of the Westerdale brochs in Caithness, and stands adjacent to the River Thurso in the Causeymire Windfarm near Achkeepster. Unusually, perhaps, walkers are actively welcomed to explore the area of this windfarm. Access is via a good metalled road to the windfarm, to the west of the A9 and about 1½ kilometres south of Mybster.
Be aware that the much more expansive Halsary Windfarm lies immediately adjacent to and south of the Causeymire Windfarm (but is not at present shown on the OS map). Its spacious entrance is just a few hundred metres farther south. On my first visit to the area, I parked in the entrance to this windfarm and found the layout totally different to the windfarm shown on the OS map. If in doubt, look for the Map illustrated in the Artistic / Interpretive: section above. If you don't see a sign bearing this map beside the cattle grid at the start of the road leading into the windfarm, you are in the wrong windfarm!
Route to Tulach Mor
The purple marker "P" indicates the parking area at the windfarm entrance (you are not permitted to drive your vehicle into the windfarm). The green markers show the locations of the Tulach Mor and Tulach Beag brochs. The southern one is your target, Tulach Mor.
The walk to Tulach Mor starts with a trek of around four kilometres along a wide roughly metalled road. Keep to this road (yellow trail on the map) and avoid turning off along any of the short turbine servicing roads. All the turbines are indicated by small white markers on the map, and the one where you set off cross-country to Tulach Mor is a larger white marker indicated "X".
When you leave the road, you have a walk over a mixture of grass tussocks, heather and sphagnum (cyan line on map) for almost 600 metres, effectively due west. The main indicator to look out for is the River Thurso. Turbine "X", is the first turbine from which you can actually see the river, so basically just make for it. The terrain is mixed, and the easiest stretches are the frequent grassy tongues. I visited in drought conditions, but I reckon the superabundant sphagnum could be a problem in wetter times. Almost at once, you should see the broch mound in the distance.
Tulach Mor is a prominent mound abutting the eastern river bank close to where the River Thurso dog-legs sharply towards the southwest. The broch stands on a rock with a steep face on the south and west and was originally protected by a ditch around its eastern side. On the east is a field of tumbled masonry, presumably the remains of a severely quarried wall that formerly crowned the ditch.
There's not a great deal of walling remaining, except on the south and southwest, where several courses of neat blocks endure. For the rest, the structure is just a grass-covered dome with a saucer-shaped depression in its summit, characteristic of the filled-in court seen in many brochs. On the northern arc of the summit some stonework of the broch's inner wall still protrudes while on its inner western wall is a lintelled breach leading to an intra-mural cavity.
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Visited: June 23, 2021
Rumster broch stands in Rumster Forest, not far from the broch at Golsary. Sadly, there is little to see other than a green mound with no evidence of stonework at all.
To access Rumster broch, follow the directions on the Golsary page but, instead of taking the turning to the right, continue south for about 700 metres then take the forest road to the left (east). Rumster broch is immediately evident in the field on your right.
Canmore does state that "one course of a curved wallface, made of heavy stones, is exposed in the south-west arc". I daresay that in spring, before the rank nettles and thistles hold sway, it might be easier to locate.
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Visited: June 22, 2021
The remains of Borgue Langwell broch (red marker on map below) stand near the top of a short valley south of the Langwell Water (stream) near Berridale in Caithness. The structure consists of a grassy mound with remnant walling courses on the south and southwest only. Elsewhere, any stonework that had existed is now totally tumbled into an amorphous stoneheap. The broch mound itself is a grassy dome with a slight saucer-like depression in its summit and the occasional large stone peeking out from its sides.
Getting to Borgue Langwell poses a bit of a challenge. Until a few years ago, the OS map showed a woodland path leading from a car-park on the A9 (blue marker) almost directly to the site. But no longer. The trees have been harvested leaving behind a wasteland of stumps and branches that is almost impossible to cross: and of the original path there remains no trace. Add to this the fact that a large section of the area is now guarded by a high fence—presumably to protect new plantings—and the problem is compounded!
Starting from the car-park, which is 1.5 kilometres south of Berridale, the only practical route is to follow the A9 south. Fortunately, there is a wide grassy verge all the way, which makes this a very safe option. After 800 metres, the band of roadside trees gives way to a wide fire break which heads north towards Borgue Langwell. After a further 600 metres I arrived at a fence and gate. Frustratingly, the broch lies, not on the other side of the gate, but beyond a second fence heading off to the right. With no sign of a gate through this fence (though there obviously must be one somewhere), the remaining option was to clamber over it using the high slatted stile at the side of the gate. The broch lies around a hundred metres away beyond the remains of an old farm steading.
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Visited: June 23, 2021
Golsary broch lies in Rumster Forest, not far north of Latheron in Caithness. All that remains these days is a conical vegetated mound at the end of a low ridge in a clearing in the woodland. Close by are the ruinous remains of Golsary farmstead.
What impresses most on first sight is the height of the broch, which stands almost four metres tall atop the south end of the ridge. There was no sign of any stonework at the time of my visit, when the entire structure was buried under quite dense vegetation.
To the north, the ridge has been excavated to create a defensive ditch about two metres in depth, somewhat exaggerated by heaps of discarded spoil which have formed a rampart either side of it.
Getting There
Access to Golsary broch is easiest from the A9. Some 9 kilometres north of Latheron, just past Loch Rangag, a side road (signposted "Lybster 7") heads off to the right towards Rumster Forest. There, about 0.5 km after you enter the woodland, there is a car park on the left (blue marker on the map above). From here it is a walk of 2 kilometres southwards to the broch. The route is labelled 'Cycle Route' on the OS map.
Keep heading south and take the second turning on the left which leads gently downhill into a shallow valley. Best plan is to make for the U-bend in the road and follow the stream to the broch (red marker on map). Everything here is densely vegetated and you simply have to bash through it to your goal: there is no path.
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A keen hillwalker most of my life, my interest was restricted when the need arose to care for an ageing parent.
With limited opportunities to travel far from home, I 'discovered' the world of stone circles, mainly in my native Aberdeenshire.
This provided the ideal opportunity for short walks of just a few hours duration, and resulted in me visiting many places of interest that I had never considered previously.
Website:
Stone Circles of NE Scotland
Here you will find both Google and Bing maps displaying more than 100 sites of stone circles, the majority in my native Aberdeenshire. The markers on the maps are clickable, to reveal a photo of the stone circle and a link to their Canmore Site Record.
A menu at the side of the maps allows you to zoom in to any individual circle, viewing its environs as a zoomable aerial photograph (Google) or an OS Map (Bing).
Hunebedden
I've since extended my interest to the megalithic remains in The Netherlands, where there are some magnificent passage graves known as hunebedden (giant's beds). Despite the fact that The Netherlands is essentially flat and sandy, these 5000 year old monuments from the Funnel Beaker Culture are often found in exquisite woodland settings, nearly all of them in the province of Drenthe. There are almost limitless opportunities for delightful walks between small villages, taking in a diversion to a hunebed here and there.
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