When excavated, the Broch of Yarhouse consisted of a circular wall, 12 to 13 feet thick, enclosing a central area, 30 feet in diameter. The height of the wall remaining was about 15 feet. The doorway which passes straight through the wall is about 6 feet high and 2½ wide, slightly narrower at top than at bottom, and well built with long flat slabs, some of which were 8 feet in length. The opening of the doorway into the interior area and recess above it are shown in Fig. 196. There were no guard-chambers or bar-holes, and the checks for the door were quite on the inner side of the wall. But this Broch stood on what was practically an island, cut off from the land by a ditch 25 to 30 feet wide, and the access to the doorway was carefully protected by the outworks to be subsequently described. Opening from the interior area to the left of the doorway was the entrance to the stair (Fig. [197]), which also gave access to an oblong chamber at the stairfoot. The stair itself was 3 feet wide, and 16 steps up there was a landing, with a light hole or window looking into the interior of the Broch. Above the entrance to the stair there were also three windows, placed vertically over each other—all that remained of a vertical range of windows, such as we have seen in the case of Mousa, Dun Carloway, and the Glenelg Brochs. On the side of the area opposite to the doorway was an oblong chamber in the thickness of the wall, roofed in the usual manner by overlapping stones. In this Broch, as at Kintradwell, there was an interior wall, of inferior masonry, built against the main wall, and partially bonded into it at the door openings. This inner wall was 2½ feet thick, and rose to a height of 8 feet, where the wall-head formed a level scarcement all round the interior. Partition walls (shown at B in ground plan, Fig. [194]) ran half way across the area from both sides of the doorway, and that on the right of the entrance bent at a right angle towards the Broch wall. These partitions were partly built, and partly formed of long slabs set on end. They rose to about 8 feet—the same height as the scarcement. The partitions and the inner wall forming the scarcement were founded on an accumulation of rubbish largely mixed with ashes and food refuse, which covered the original floor of the Broch to the depth of 12 to 14 inches. They were therefore clearly secondary constructions, made to adapt the Broch to the purposes of a secondary occupation. Outside the Broch wall are two long irregularly-shaped enclosures, and several smaller cells. The outer enclosure (D in plan, Fig. [194]) is 100 feet in length, and varies in width from 6 to 20 feet. The length of the inner enclosure (C) is 70 feet, and its width about 12 feet. They have each a little cell, provided with door checks opening off them. In some places their walls remained entire to the height of 10 feet, without showing any sign of overlapping for a roof. Both these large oblong enclosures had irregular rows of long slabs set on end in their floors, as if to divide them into cattle stalls. A long covered way (A) leading to the entrance of the Broch traversed the N.E. end of these enclosures. It varied from about 3 feet wide at the door of the Broch to about 5 feet wide at the outer end, and had checks for doors at four different places in its length. The secondary character of all these exterior constructions was obvious from the fact that underneath their foundations there was a considerable depth of stones overlying the original soil, and mingled with ashes and food refuse. It was also evident that various occupations of the interior of the Broch had taken place from time to time, when the original floor had become covered with rubbish to a considerable depth. Partition walls were met with at three different levels, dividing the internal area on three different plans; the last being a partial partition, utilising only one side of the area, at a time when the original floor had become covered with 8 feet of stones and rubbish. The relics obtained in the course of the excavation were few in number compared with the size and apparent importance of the structure. No querns were found, but about a dozen grain rubbers and stones hollowed like mortars, large numbers of stone pestles, pounders, or hammer-stones, abraded at the ends by use; several whetstones (Figs. 198, 199), a large number of thin circular discs of slaty sandstone, from 2½ inches up to 14 or 15 inches in diameter, many stone balls 2½ to 3 inches diameter, a small rounded pebble of quartz, with a hole through it, a number of spindle-whorls of stone, and one of burnt clay. The objects in metal were a ring of bronze, half an inch in diameter, an armlet of bronze (Fig. [200]), made of a wire 1⁄16-inch in diameter, square for half its length, and twisted so that the corners form a spiral pattern, the other half being the plain round wire. A few fragments of iron knives, and some indeterminate objects of small size, greatly corroded, were all the remains of iron implements that were found. The pottery was very abundant, but the fragments were in general small. Some were coarse and thick, others thin and fine; all unglazed, and entirely without ornament, except that some pieces showed a slightly everted lip. The animal remains included those of the reindeer (Figs. 201, 202) and red-deer, the horse, the ox, the sheep, the pig, the dog, and some undetermined birds and fish. Although the site is a long way from the sea, there was a considerable accumulation of the common shore shells, chiefly periwinkles and limpets. The occurrence of the remains of the reindeer among the refuse of the food of the occupants of the Brochs of the North of Scotland is a fact of much interest in various ways. It establishes the correctness of the statement made incidentally in the Orkneyinga Saga,[[85]] when, in recording the movements of Harald and Rognvald, Earls of Orkney, in the year 1158, the writer says that “every summer the Earls were wont to go over to Caithness, and up into the forests to hunt the red deer or the reindeer.” It also shows that in Scotland at least the association of reindeer remains with those of prehistoric man does not of itself or necessarily indicate extreme antiquity.
Figs. 198, 199.—Whetstones from Broch of Yarhouse (3 inches in length).
Fig. 200.—Bronze Armlet from the Broch of Yarhouse (2½ inches diameter).
Figs. 201,202.—Portions of Horns of Reindeer found in the Broch of Yarhouse, Caithness.
The Broch of Old Stirkoke, which I watched during its removal by the farmer for drains and top-dressing, was a grass-covered mound 120 paces in circumference, 12 feet high, and nearly 40 feet diameter across its level summit. The wall of the Broch was 13 feet thick and the enclosed area 30 feet diameter. A square drain ran under the floor. The objects casually recovered from the rubbish were a bone bodkin 8 inches long, a polished bone needle 3 inches in length, a thin polished disc of mica schist 2½ inches diameter similar to other objects of the same character (of which the intention is not obvious) found in Brochs and Crannogs, a stone lamp, a few spindle-whorls, two whetstones, hammer-stones, thin circular discs of slaty stone, a fragment of bronze and a portion of the hilt end of an iron sword with a very broad double-edged blade.
Fig. 203.—Vessel of Red Sandstone (6 inches in length).