Part 16

We have already seen that many of these towers were built in positions that were naturally strong. One of the most remarkable of these is the Broch of Cole’s Castle in Strathbrora, Sutherlandshire (Fig. 178), which has been already referred to. It is situated on the top of an isolated eminence, precipitous on one side, and defended on the side which is less precipitous by a double fortification of dry-stone walling. Others whose situations made them capable of being so defended were protected by ditches and embankments. The Broch of Snaburgh, in the island of Unst, in Shetland, which stands on a promontory projecting into the loch, is protected on the land side by a wet ditch and a rampart of large stones. The Broch of Burraness, in the same island, is strengthened on the land side by two deep ditches and high embankments. The Broch of Cullswick was protected by a ditch 13 feet wide, and a rampart of earth and stones completely encircling the base of the tower. The Broch of Burraland, which stood on a promontory in the loch, had a double rampart and a double wet ditch on the land side, both well defined. The Broch of Yarhouse, in Caithness, stood on a low flat promontory projecting into the loch, and was cut off from the land by a deep ditch from 25 to 30 feet wide, and had its doorway further protected by a long covered way. The Broch of Clickamin, at Lerwick (Fig. 179), although situated on an island in the loch, was fortified by a wall completely surrounding the island. Within this outer wall of defence there is an outwork or guard-house, in form a segment of a circle, 43 feet on its convex face, connected with the outer wall by a passage. The outwork is 19 feet wide at the passage through it, slightly narrower at the ends. The passage is 8 feet high, and about 5 feet in from the outer face of the work it narrows to 2 feet 11 inches, with checks for a door. Behind these are holes in the opposite walls for a bar and a slit in the roof of the passage. Besides these two exterior defences the doorway of the tower itself had checks and a sill for a door about 10 feet within the outer opening of the entrance passage through the wall of the Broch. This passage is 4 feet 10 inches high, and the opening between the door-checks is 2 feet 11 inches wide at the bottom and 2 feet 6 inches at the top, with bar-holes on either side.

The East Broch of Burray, in Orkney, explored by Mr. Farrer, presented the appearance of a green mound 20 feet high, surrounded by an embankment. The mound when excavated was found to cover the lower portion of a circular tower of uncemented masonry (Fig. 180). The wall of the tower was 15 feet thick, enclosing a central area 36 feet in diameter. The entrance passage as usual went straight through the wall, and had a guard-chamber opening from it on either side. The entrance to one of these is shown in the section and the bar-hole behind it. There were two other chambers constructed in the thickness of the wall opening from the central area, and the entrance to the stair was placed as usual to the left of the doorway, but on a higher level. In all its features it closely resembles all that have been described, but in one feature it differs from them. Close to the doorway, but outside the wall, there is a well with a passage and steps leading down into it. There are other examples which exhibit the same feature.

The Broch of Borrowston, in Shapinsay (Fig. 181), also in Orkney, consisted of a wall 13 feet thick, enclosing a central area 33 feet in diameter. Within the central area of the Broch there was a well 10 feet deep, the lower part dug out of the solid rock, and the upper part faced with dry-built masonry. The Broch of Okstrow, at Birsay in Orkney, which consisted of a wall 12 feet thick, enclosing an area 45 feet in diameter, had a well within the area and a drain from it leading out to the outside of the structure. The Broch near the Manse at Harray (Fig. 182), excavated by Rev. Dr Traill, consisted of a wall 12 feet thick, enclosing an area about 33 feet in diameter. It was surrounded by outbuildings, which were not properly explored. There were no guard-chambers on either side of the passage (B), which shows the checks for the door, at 6 feet within the outer face of the wall. To the left of the main entrance is the usual chamber (H) at the foot of the stair (G), of which 19 steps remain; and two other oval chambers (E and F), placed at nearly equal distances in the circumference of the wall, complete the resemblance to the general type. Near the middle of the area a subterranean passage terminating in five steps led to a well (D) 9 feet deep excavated in the rock. The subjoined sectional diagram (Fig. 183) shows the construction of the well, which still retained water when the excavation of the Broch was made. The Brochs of Skinnet, Harpsdale, and Kettleburn in Caithness, had each a well within the central area. The well of the last-mentioned Broch is still utilised as the existing water supply for the cottars, who live in houses close by constructed of the stones removed from the site of the ancient structure.

The central areas of several Brochs have been provided with drains to convey the surface water outside the building. This same Broch of Kettleburn had a drain which passed out under the foundation of the wall of the tower. It was what is now called a self-cleansing drain, the flat stones forming the water channel being set together in the form of the letter V. Sir Henry Dryden remarks the presence of drains in the Broch of Clickamin. I found a square drain leading from the court of a Broch which I excavated at Brounaben, in the parish of Wick.

The facts that many of these structures were thus provided with drainage, and that they had also secured a water-supply within the enclosed area of the building, are not only significant indications of intelligence and forethought applied to the arrangement of constructional details, but when taken in connection with all the other arrangements of the structure external and internal, they complete a series of characteristics which point definitely to one object as the chief intention of the Broch-structure, viz. security obtained by the simplest of all means—a construction of uncemented stones which could neither be easily forced nor readily reduced.[74]

Footnote 74:

That this object was practically attained by these simple means we have evidence in one case from the direct testimony of record. It is related in the _Orkneyinga Saga_, that Erlend, who (about A.D. 1155) carried off the widow of Maddad, Earl of Athol, took her north to Shetland, and took up his residence in Moseyarborg—the Broch of Mousa, described at the commencement of this Lecture. It is said that her son Harald, Earl of Orkney, pursued Erlend, and besieged him in the Borg, “but it was difficult to take it by assault,” and the siege failed because “Erlend had made great preparations.” This is the only record of the actual use of a Broch as a place of defence, and it bears out the inference drawn from an examination of the nature and arrangements of the structure, that it was difficult to take by assault, and equally difficult to reduce by siege, if the defenders were provided with supplies. It is also stated in the Saga of Egil Skalagrimson, that about two centuries and a half before this time (or somewhere about A.D. 900), Bjorn Brynjulfson, fleeing from Norway with Thora, Roald’s daughter, because her father would not consent to their marriage, was shipwrecked on the island of Mousa, landed his cargo and lived in the Borg during the winter, celebrating his marriage in it, and afterwards sailed for Iceland.—_The Orkneyinga Saga_ (Edinburgh, 1873), p. cxi. and chap. 92.

Reviewing the typical characteristics of the special form of structure which has come to be known in recent years by the local northern name Broch, we see that it is a hollow circular tower of dry-built masonry, rarely more than 70 or less than 40 feet in its total diameter, and occasionally at least 50 feet high. Its circular wall, which may be from 9 to 20 feet thick, is carried up solid for about 10 feet, except where it is pierced by the entrance, or partially hollowed by the construction within its thickness of oblong chambers with rudely-vaulted roofs. Above this height the wall is carried up with a vacancy of about 3 feet wide between its exterior and interior portions. At every 5 or 6 feet of its height this vacancy is crossed by horizontal ranges of slabs inserted as ties between the outer and inner shells of the wall, so that their upper surfaces form a floor to the space above and their under surfaces become a roof to the space below. These spaces thus form horizontal galleries about 6 feet high and 3 feet wide, separated from each other vertically by the slabs of their floors and roofs. They run completely round the tower except that they are crossed successively by the stair which gives access to them. They are lighted by ranges of peculiarly-constructed windows placed vertically over each other, and all looking into the central area enclosed by the wall of the tower. This area or court varies from 20 to 45 feet in diameter. At various points of its interior circumference are placed the openings which give access to the chambers on the ground floor within the wall, and to the stair which ascends to the galleries. The only aperture on the outside of the tower is the doorway formed by the external opening of the tunnel-like passage through the wall which gives access to the central court. It is always on the ground level, square-headed, usually with slightly inclined sides,[75] 5 to 6 feet high, and rarely more than 3 feet wide, passing straight through the thickness of the wall, and thus varying from 9 to 18 feet in length. Some 4 feet or thereby within the outer end of the passage there is a rebate of the masonry faced with strong slabs inserted edgewise in the wall, and forming checks for a door, behind which are the bar-holes, and behind them the opening of a guard-chamber built in the thickness of the wall.

Footnote 75:

Having mislaid my measurements of the doorways of Caithness Brochs, I am unable to give examples from that county. But I am favoured, by the Rev. Dr. J. M. Joass of Golspie, with the following measurements of the doorways of Sutherlandshire Brochs:—

Height of Breadth of Doorway. Doorway. Above. Below. Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft. In. Broch of Carnliath— Door in Outworks 5 9 2 10 3 9 Door in Broch Wall— Outer Opening 6 6 2 5 2 9 In middle of 6 0 2 7 3 0 Passage Inner Opening 6 6 3 0 3 5 Broch of Kintrolla— Door in Broch Wall— Outer Opening 7 0 3 0 3 6 In middle of 5 5 2 3 2 8 Passage Inner Opening 4 11 1 9 2 9 Broch of Backies— Door in Broch Wall— (2 feet of rubbish in passage, height above that 4 feet.) Outer Opening 2 11 3 3 In middle of 2 1 2 6 Passage Inner Opening 2 9 3 8

I learn from Mr. W. G. T. Watt that the doorway of the Broch of Burwick, near Stromness, in Orkney, which is 5 feet 2 inches in height, measures 3 feet 1 inch in width at the top, and 3 feet 5 inches at the bottom. From these examples and the measurements of the doorways of Shetland brochs by Sir Henry Dryden, it may be held as demonstrated that the characteristic feature of inclined instead of perpendicular door-jambs, which was constant in the constructions of the early Christian time, was also characteristic of the Brochs.

On further consideration of this remarkable group of excessively peculiar features, it becomes evident that they all point more or less obviously to the presence of a double intention in the minds of the constructors of the Brochs. The design of the whole structure and the arrangements of all its separate parts exhibit a careful and laborious adaptation of means and material to the two main objects of shelter and defence. The clever constructive idea of turning the house outside in as it were, placing its rooms within its walls, and turning all their windows towards the interior of the edifice, implies boldness of conception and fertility of resource. The height of the wall, which effectually secured the inmates against projectiles, also removed its essentially weak upper part beyond reach of assault, while the pressure of its mass knit the masonry of the lower part firmly together, and its thickness made it difficult to force an entrance by digging through it—if such a wall could be approached for this purpose when the whole of its upper materials were deadly missiles ready to the hands of the defenders. The door, securely fastened by its great bar, is too strong to be carried by a rush. Placed four feet or more within the passage, it can only be reached by one man at a time, and the narrowness of the passage prevents the use of long levers. In all probability the door itself is a slab of stone, and impervious to fire. But even if it is forced, and entrance gained to the interior court, the enemy finds himself as it were in the bottom of a well 30 to 40 feet in diameter with walls 50 feet high, pierced on all sides by vertical ranges of windows, or loopholes, commanding every foot of the space below, and rising to the number of twenty or more, immediately over the door which gives access to the galleries. In short, the concentration of effort towards the two main objects of space for shelter and complete security was never more strikingly exhibited, and no more admirable adaptation of materials so simple and common as undressed and uncemented stone for this double purpose has ever been discovered or suggested. Perhaps there is no characteristic of the typical structure more remarkable than the extreme constancy of its essential features. The uniformity of plan and construction is so unvarying among all the known examples that there exists no means of tracing the development of the form through a series of primitive or immature stages. In this respect there is a striking analogy between the Brochs and the Round Towers of Ireland. The Irish Towers also appear fully developed, and exhibit a general uniformity of plan and construction which is quite as remarkable in its manifestations among them as it is among the Brochs.[76] Their origin is assignable to peculiar circumstances in the history of the ecclesiastical communities, and chiefly to their constant liability to sudden danger of plunder and murder by roving bands of marauding Norsemen. This specialty of purpose accounts for, and harmonises with, their specialty of form; and their remarkable uniformity of plan is the natural result of the special fitness of the typical form for its special intention—the provision of a secure refuge from dangers which, though of frequent occurrence, were of transient duration.

Footnote 76:

It is to be observed that the type of Round Tower peculiar to Scotland, and known by the name Broch, differs totally, and in all its essential features, from the tall, slender, round Towers of Ecclesiastical construction in Scotland and Ireland. The Brochs are dry-built, the Ecclesiastical Round Towers are lime-built. No hewn stone is used in the construction of a Broch; the doors and windows of the Ecclesiastical Round Towers are often of hewn stone, and sometimes ornamented with sculptures. The Brochs have their chambers, stairs, and galleries in the thickness of the wall enclosing the central area; the lime-built Round Towers possess none of these features. The Brochs have their doorways always on the ground and their windows opening to the interior area; the Ecclesiastical Round Towers have their windows opening in the exterior wall, and their doors placed at a considerable height above the ground. There is thus no point of similarity between the two types of structure except their external roundness.

In Scotland the area which is chiefly occupied by the Brochs was peculiarly exposed to similar occurrences. Over the whole of the northern and western districts there ebbed and flowed continuously for centuries a species of irregular intermittent warfare, consisting chiefly of plundering forays by bands of foreign marauders. And as the special association of the Round Towers of Ireland with the ecclesiastical sites of the country supplies the clue to their special purpose, the Brochs of Scotland have also their special association from which their special purpose may also be fairly deduced. Although they are often placed in situations of natural strength, yet, as a rule, they mark the area of the best land in the districts in which they are situated. This is specially true of their local distribution in Caithness, while in Sutherland we see them thickly planted in the fertile straths, and following the courses of the rivers to distances of twenty-five or thirty miles inland. They are therefore the defensive strongholds of a population located upon the arable lands, and not in the mountain fastnesses of the country; and their peculiar nature as exceptionally secure places of refuge for non-combatants and cattle, and for storage of produce, explains the fitness of their association with the arable soil of the area in which they are most abundantly present. Against such oft-recurring but transient dangers to the cultivators and to the produce of their soil there could be no more effective system of defence provided than a multitude of _safes_, which should be burglar-proof, and big enough to contain the families, goods, and cattle of their proprietors.[77]

Footnote 77:

In some Archæological Notes contributed to the _Academy_ of March 25, 1882, on the Terra d’Otranto in the South of Italy, M. Lenormant mentions a peculiar usage still kept up by the inhabitants of the provinces of Bari and Lecce of constructing in their fields structures of uncemented stones called _truddhu_, which exactly reproduce on a smaller scale the type, arrangements, and mode of building characteristic of the Nuraghi of Sardinia, the Sesi of the island of Pantellaria, and the Talayots of the Balearic Islands. Like the Nuraghe, the Truddhu is a massive conical tower of uncemented stones with a central circular chamber rudely vaulted by the overlapping of the successive courses of its masonry. A low door gives access to the chamber. Sometimes a second chamber is constructed over the first, and approached by a narrow flight of steps winding along the side of the tower. These steps are present even when there is no second chamber, and forming a spiral round the outside of the tower, they give access to the paved platform on the top of the structure. The Truddhu serves as a shelter in bad weather and as a dwelling-place by night in the agricultural season, as the peasant proprietors often live in the towns and travel to and fro in bands for fear of brigands. Sometimes this structure is changed into a permanent home, and the village of Alberto-Bello consists wholly of houses of this form. Thousands of these constructions stud the plains. Some are being built, others are in all stages of dilapidation and decay. Although it is almost impossible to distinguish those that are ancient from those that were made but yesterday, M. Lenormant is of opinion that the origin of the custom must be referred to prehistoric times. A similar custom of constructing stone-built towers of refuge also prevails in the Caucasus, and Mr. Freshfield speaks of having as many as sixty of these structures in view at one time.

If it be thus suggested by the relations of the Brochs to the arable lands of the districts in which they are situated, that they belonged to the possessors and cultivators of the soil, the affinities of the typical structure itself go far to show that in its character and origin it is distinctively Celtic. None of its essential features have been observed in any construction outside of the Celtic area. And within that area no building with a stair and an arrangement of galleries similar to that of a Broch has been met with out of Scotland. But the circular wall, with chambers in its thickness, which may be regarded as the germ from which the Broch structure has grown, is a characteristic feature of Celtic construction. We have met with it in the walls of the cashels surrounding the ecclesiastical settlements of Christian times. It is common in Irish Cloghauns and Scottish beehive houses, and is so persistently Celtic that it appears also in Wales and Cornwall. The ground plan of the most perfect of a group of beehive huts at Bodinar, in Cornwall (Fig. 184), exhibits an arrangement of oval chambers in the thickness of its wall precisely similar to the arrangement which prevails in the Brochs. The long narrow gallery (the essential feature of the earth-houses of Scotland, Ireland, and Cornwall) is also a form of construction which is specially characteristic of the Celtic area. The typical Broch structure thus presents a combination of features and forms of construction[78] which are found existing separately in other constructions of Celtic character and origin, although the typical combination which distinguishes the Broch structure from all others is confined to Scotland alone.

Footnote 78:

The ideal Broch is composed of a series of galleries like those of the earth-houses, superimposed upon a basement with a ground plan like that of the structure at Bodinar, and connected by a stair. Although the stone forts of Ireland occasionally exhibit chambers within the thickness of their walls and have double stairs placed against the interior face of the wall to give access to the wall-head, they never have galleries superimposed on each other, and stairs in the thickness of the wall.

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