Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
On the highest elevation of the Torwood, in the parish of Dunipace in
Stirlingshire, are the remains of a circular structure, excavated in
1864 by Colonel Joseph Dundas. Its appearance previous to its excavation
was that of a conical hillock situated nearly on the verge of a
precipitous crag, and enclosed on the accessible side by the remains of
a double wall of fortification. After excavation it was found to be the
ruin of a circular tower of uncemented masonry which, by the gradual
dilapidation of its walls, had become a conical hillock of stones
covered with grass and heather, and overgrown by a clump of large
fir-trees. The structure, now cleared from the superincumbent mass of
ruin, is a circular wall 15 feet thick, enclosing a central area of 35
feet in diameter. The entrance doorway has some of the massive lintels
still upon it. It is about 7 feet high and 3 feet wide at the
door-checks, behind which are the usual bar-holes (shown at A A in the
ground plan and section, Figs. 173, 174). To the left of the doorway is
the staircase, as usual in the thickness of the wall. The height of wall
remaining is not sufficient to show any traces of the galleries, but the
presence of the stair implies their former existence. There are no
chambers in the thickness of the wall on the ground floor, but all the
other features of the building are those of the typical Broch structure.
[Illustration: Figs. 173, 174.—Ground plan and section of elevation of
doorway in Broch at Torwood, Stirlingshire. (Drawn by J. Romilly
Allen.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 175.—Ground plan of the Broch of Coldoch,
Perthshire. (From a Plan by Mr. Ballingall.)]
On the other side of the valley of the Forth, and farther west, at
Coldoch, in Perthshire, a similar mound, covering the ruins of a
circular tower of uncemented masonry, was excavated in 1870. The
structure consists of a circular wall (as shown on the ground plan, Fig.
175) 17 feet thick, enclosing a central area of 30 feet in diameter. The
doorway on the east side passes straight through the wall, and is three
feet wide, with checks for the door about half-way through the thickness
of the wall, and immediately behind them the usual bar-holes. To the
left of the doorway is the staircase. No remains of the upper galleries
exist, but the presence of the stair implies that they did exist.
Opening from the central area are the entrances to three chambers in the
thickness of the wall. They are nearly of a size, 8 feet long, 4 feet
wide, and a little over 6 feet high. One still retains its roof, rudely
vaulted with overlapping masonry. In this case also the group of
features characteristic of the structure and its arrangements is such as
can be found only in the typical structure of the Broch.
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