Sunday, December 23, 2007
WEST BROCH OF BURGAR
NMRS record no. HY32NW 15 at HY34822782 is a 54' diameter mound of maximum height of 6'3" fat the SE, with a flat central hollow 2-5' high about the periphery and 37' from crest to crest of this ridge. The cairn's composition is reported as substantial flat stones of a very friable nature, rather than purposefully thin slabs as once thought. Davidson and Henshall's measurements give the cairn a definite edge enclosing an area 17.5m across with maximum height of 1.9m max. at the SE. This diameter being over a metre greater than previously reported either the groundplan is oblate or there has been additional spread, which latter would rule out the edge's certainty to my way of thinking. Of course the site is on the ground is more complicated than than the diagrammatic plans show, and the main elements given aren't necesarily representative of what were once the main components given the amount lost to 'quarrying'.
The presently exposed chamber as described by Davidson and Henshall consists of compartments 1.8 and 2m long. Their Orkney volume adds another section at the northern end where what was once seen as possibly an angled wall face, but which they think is simply exposed cairn material, blocks the chamber where they believe the axial passage had once been. As described by them this NE/SW chamber consists front to back of :-
Slab pair (outer) are 0.65m apart 20cm thick, projecting 0.2 & 0.5m, with the first the only slab not 0.6m wide. Slab pair (inner) 0.6m higher up are 0.55m apart (1935 1'4" from a different place ?) 5 cm thick, projecting 0.8m but apparently once taller - that at the SE presently has its top level with the surviving mound top. The barely projecting back slab is 10cm thick and 0.2m above the outer pair. The two edgeset slabs a yard east of the chamber, aligned N/S but presumed displaced from the chamber itself, with (perhaps) another stone had once been deemed as possible evidence for an Unstan-style side entry. These thick slabs of four and six feet in length are, however, distinctly out of proportion with other elements of the chamber. And so tight is their contact that they look to be the top of one giant orthostat (standing stone ??) that has split vertically down a cleavage plane. I suspect these and some of the site's larg slabs came from the burnside going by the exposed stone still in situ.
Could this site be 'domestic' rather than sepulchral ? Once this was thought to be a broch, called the West Broch of Burgar in reference to a supposed pairing with the present Broch of Burgar analogous to that of the Burray brochs - on the first O.S. maps they were both more simply labelled broughs. Some years before 1928 the site was quarried at the NW for use as farm buildings material - like the Knowe of Midgarth the locals reported it as containing 'sailor's graves' [could it be that the treasure hoard came from the chambered mound rather than the other brough, as it would have been a good ploy for the suspicious farmer to mislead treasure seekers by saying it came from the other place]. On the early maps a thick-walled square structure labelled Castle is shown a little west of the mound (the Castle legend is displaced offshore on modern maps when shown at all). This is within the same modern fence lines as the mound, just east of it on the other side of the field wall. The long cairn on the Head of Work also has a castle at the cliff-edge nearby, though what can be seen at that location nowadays is essentially natural in my opinion.
NMRS record no. HY32NW 15 at HY34822782 is a 54' diameter mound of maximum height of 6'3" fat the SE, with a flat central hollow 2-5' high about the periphery and 37' from crest to crest of this ridge. The cairn's composition is reported as substantial flat stones of a very friable nature, rather than purposefully thin slabs as once thought. Davidson and Henshall's measurements give the cairn a definite edge enclosing an area 17.5m across with maximum height of 1.9m max. at the SE. This diameter being over a metre greater than previously reported either the groundplan is oblate or there has been additional spread, which latter would rule out the edge's certainty to my way of thinking. Of course the site is on the ground is more complicated than than the diagrammatic plans show, and the main elements given aren't necesarily representative of what were once the main components given the amount lost to 'quarrying'.
The presently exposed chamber as described by Davidson and Henshall consists of compartments 1.8 and 2m long. Their Orkney volume adds another section at the northern end where what was once seen as possibly an angled wall face, but which they think is simply exposed cairn material, blocks the chamber where they believe the axial passage had once been. As described by them this NE/SW chamber consists front to back of :-
Slab pair (outer) are 0.65m apart 20cm thick, projecting 0.2 & 0.5m, with the first the only slab not 0.6m wide. Slab pair (inner) 0.6m higher up are 0.55m apart (1935 1'4" from a different place ?) 5 cm thick, projecting 0.8m but apparently once taller - that at the SE presently has its top level with the surviving mound top. The barely projecting back slab is 10cm thick and 0.2m above the outer pair. The two edgeset slabs a yard east of the chamber, aligned N/S but presumed displaced from the chamber itself, with (perhaps) another stone had once been deemed as possible evidence for an Unstan-style side entry. These thick slabs of four and six feet in length are, however, distinctly out of proportion with other elements of the chamber. And so tight is their contact that they look to be the top of one giant orthostat (standing stone ??) that has split vertically down a cleavage plane. I suspect these and some of the site's larg slabs came from the burnside going by the exposed stone still in situ.
Could this site be 'domestic' rather than sepulchral ? Once this was thought to be a broch, called the West Broch of Burgar in reference to a supposed pairing with the present Broch of Burgar analogous to that of the Burray brochs - on the first O.S. maps they were both more simply labelled broughs. Some years before 1928 the site was quarried at the NW for use as farm buildings material - like the Knowe of Midgarth the locals reported it as containing 'sailor's graves' [could it be that the treasure hoard came from the chambered mound rather than the other brough, as it would have been a good ploy for the suspicious farmer to mislead treasure seekers by saying it came from the other place]. On the early maps a thick-walled square structure labelled Castle is shown a little west of the mound (the Castle legend is displaced offshore on modern maps when shown at all). This is within the same modern fence lines as the mound, just east of it on the other side of the field wall. The long cairn on the Head of Work also has a castle at the cliff-edge nearby, though what can be seen at that location nowadays is essentially natural in my opinion.
Labels: broch, Burgar, cairn, castle, chambered
