Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
materials illustrative of her native industry and native art, with their
associated indications of social organisation and potential culture.
LECTURE VI.
(NOVEMBER 2, 1881.)
LAKE-DWELLINGS, HILL-FORTS, AND EARTH-HOUSES.
A Broch like that of Clickamin (see the Frontispiece), situated upon an
island in a loch, accessible by a causeway from the island to the shore
is practically a lake-dwelling. But there are many defensive structures
occupying similar positions which are not Brochs, although they are
often constructed of stone. Most of them are now in such a ruinous
condition that it is impossible to say what may have been the precise
nature of their form and architectural construction.
[Illustration: Fig. 244.—Defensive structure on an island in the Loch of
Hogsetter, Whalsay, Shetland. (From a Sketch Plan by Dr. Arthur
Mitchell.)]
In the Loch of Hogsetter, in the island of Whalsay, in Shetland, there
is a small island containing a defensive structure of dry-built masonry
(Fig. 244) which is plainly not a Broch.[93] The structure occupies the
greater part of the available surface of the island, and its form has
evidently been determined by the form of the island. It consists of a
dry-built wall of stones with a minimum thickness of 3 to 4 feet,
enclosing an oblong oval of about 70 feet by 75 feet. A causeway, 33
yards in length, has been constructed to give access to the island from
the shore, and on the side next the causeway the enclosing wall is
amplified so as to admit of the construction of a doorway, flanked on
each side by a chamber, as seen in the detached work protecting the
entrance to the island of Clickamin. This part of the construction is
solidly built, and the chambers, which are placed to right and left of
the entrance passage, occupy the interior of a somewhat rectangular
expansion of the wall, measuring about 20 feet by 12 feet, and now only
about 8 feet high. When Low visited Whalsay in 1774, this part of the
construction was 15 feet high, and the chambers and their entrances were
quite entire. They were beehive roofed, the entrances going straight
through the back wall from the enclosed area. The main entrance, which
was 2½ feet wide and 4½ feet high, was covered by the masonry which
joined the two sides of the construction over its lintels, and at about
two-thirds of its length inwards there were checks for a door and the
usual bar-holes on either side. Dr. Mitchell states that above the two
lower chambers there appear to have been other two forming a second
tier, but as Low did not observe them, and no trace of a stair or other
access to the upper level now remains, it seems possible that they may
have been chambers of construction, or merely vacancies left to lighten
the weight on the roofs of the chambers below. Apart from the
peculiarity of its chambers, which are unlike the guard-chambers of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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