Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
The Broch of Levenwick in the parish of Dunrossness, Shetland, excavated
by Mr. Gilbert Goudie in 1869 and 1871 (Fig. 207), had an internal
diameter of 29½ to 30 feet, the wall varying in thickness from 12 to 16
feet, while the greatest height of wall remaining was 15 feet. It
presented the unusual feature of a “scarcement” or secondary wall, about
6 feet high and 6 feet wide, built against the face of the interior
wall. From this secondary construction there were five buttress-like
projections from 2½ to 4½ feet in length, placed at regular distances
from each other, and extending into the enclosed area. At one side of
the area opposite the shortest of the projecting walls was a fireplace
(_d_), consisting of three flags placed on edge. The entrance passage
(_b e f_) led straight through the wall of the Broch and through the
secondary wall in its interior, widening to the outer part of the
secondary wall. There were two of the lintels of the passage remaining,
but the outer part of the original entrance way was much dilapidated. On
this account perhaps the checks for the door were not visible and there
is no appearance of guard-chambers. Contrary to the usual experience
also, the stair ascends from an opening to the right of the main
entrance in the middle of the east side of the building (at _h_ on the
plan), and ascending to a height of 8 or 10 feet, enters a level gallery
which apparently went half way round the building to the west side (at
_m_ on the plan), where there is another flight of 15 steps remaining.
At the point where this second flight of steps starts from the gallery,
there is a window opening to the interior area. This arrangement of the
stair differs from that of Mousa. At the Broch of Yarhouse
[Illustration: Fig. 208.—Bronze Knob found in Broch of Harray (3½ inches
in length).] in Caithness what remained of the stair was similarly
divided into two flights, though the distance between them was less than
at Levenwick. The objects found in this Broch were few, consisting of
quern-stones, pounders, and roughly-hollowed stones. It is chiefly
interesting on account of the variation exhibited in its structural
details.
In one of the Brochs in the parish of Harray, in Orkney, excavated by
Mr. Farrer, a number of stone lamps, circular discs, and perforated
stones were found, and along with them the bronze object here figured
(Fig. 208).[86]
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Footnote 86:
Six of these bronze objects were found at Lisnacragher Bay, Parish of
Braid, County Antrim, in 1868, along with a sword-sheath of bronze
decorated in that peculiar style of Celtic Art of which examples have
been given in Lecture III. They seem to have been mountings of the
ends of spear-shafts, and two of them still retained part of the wood
of the shaft.—_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond._, 1868, Second Series, vol. iv.
p. 256.
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