Yarrows Broch1998 © NOSAS: JS Bone Collection
Joseph Anderson's 1867 Plan of Yarrows Broch
YARROWS BROCH
a Summary
Brochs are unique to Scotland. They are complex, hollow-walled, windowless, stone towers found mainly in the North of Scotland and constructed between roughly 200BC and 200 AD. Caithness alone has 200 brochs or broch sites. Yarrows broch is now submerged in water because the level of the loch has risen about a metre after the loch was dammed in the early 20th century. In the Iron Age the broch would have sat by the side of the loch. There is much debate among archaeologists whether these tall broch towers were built for defence, or prestige and show. Consider Victorian “castles”, eg Balmoral, as a modern example of the latter.
Brochs had several internal floors, the access to which was staircases within the thickness of the walls. There would have been a single narrow low entrance to the broch, with a “guard” cell inside that, built within the wall. The stone walls would have risen 10-13m from ground level, with probably a timber-supported thatched roof above that. An artist's reconstruction of the internal structure of a broch is shown below.
Many brochs had smaller buildings clustered around their walls. This one may have done too. However, the present structure on the landward side of the broch (top left of the photo above) seems to have been a wag, maybe refashioned from the stones of those clustered buildings. A wag is a characteristic structure from the Pictish period, particularly in this area of Caithness. Its function remains unknown, however.
Yarrows Broch in its landscape © AOC Archaeology
Yarrows Dam Construction 1903 © Johnston Collection
© Caithness Broch Project
A bit more...
When Dr Joseph Anderson first excavated this broch in 1866 and 1867, on behalf of the Rhind Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, it was a conical grassy mound 5-6m high. Known locally as the Cairn of Yarrows it was a feature in the landscape. During Anderson's excavation he found human remains buried towards the top of the mound. After he had removed the soil and vegetation of the mound, he uncovered a broch standing almost 5m tall. By1910 the wall still stood about 11ft high. Much of the structure was still visible, and the walls of the secondary structures were in good condition. So, the reduced structure you see now is a result of subsequent collapse and stone-robbing.
Further excavations and surveys have added more information to Anderson’s original findings. Although the exact sequence is conjectural, the evidence suggests that a broch was the first structure on the site, built on a small promontory jutting into the loch. The broch was then remodelled at a later stage. Finally, two curved pillared buildings, originally standing to 3m tall, were subsequently added on the landward side of the broch. This type of building, called a wag, is local to this area and is thought to be Pictish. A diving exploration in 2006 identified a stone revetment in deeper water in the loch, and a line of upright stones, probably the remains of a prehistoric pier.
In 1910 the wall stood about 11ft high. Much of the structure was still visible, and the walls of the secondary structures were in good condition.Anderson also found five human skeletons, one with a 13th/ 14th century brass brooch, in the mound.