Dunrobin Woods Broch

This track roughly follows the 130m contour through the woodland above Dunrobin Castle but if one takes a turn down the steep, overgrown bank to the right one comes across....

....a man-made mound, now largely covered in bracken. On its summit is the remains of a broch, a circular fortification which was one of several hundred built, exclusively in Scotland, during the Iron Age between roughly 500BC and 500AD, although some may have been inhabited until about 1000AD. Much of their history and purpose still remains disputed but what is not in doubt is that they were considerable engineering feats. The one in Dunrobin woods is relatively small compared to many others - its interior courtyard is something over 10m in diameter - but just the platform on which it is built would have taken many men weeks to construct.

The approach from the track is to the north side of the broch, where its main circular wall is best preserved. The height of broch walls varies considerably: this may have been its original height or it may have been much higher.

This view looks along the interior of the north side of the wall, which is about 2m thick. There are signs of a structure just inside the wall, in the centre of this picture.

Broch walls were thick because many of them contained an intramural chamber, that is, a cavity or passage which ran within the wall. This particularly interests me as Kilchoan's Mingary Castle was unusual as a mediaeval castle in having intramural walls.

The one in this broch is only visible in the west wall, above, where part of the wall has collapsed exposing it. In what little literature there is about this broch, the main entrance may have been here and this space may have been a guard cell just to the right of the entrance, a common feature in brochs.

Most of the rest of the circular wall is simply a mound of broken rock. This view is from the south wall across to the interior of the better-preserved north wall.

As with many brochs, this one would have had a good view before the forestry was planted, looking out to sea across the Moray Firth.

Brochs are most common in the NE of Scotland, in Orkney & Shetland, and on the outer Hebrides. There are three within easy walking distance of Golspie. This site is a scheduled monument.