Mousa broch, Shetland

Location: On tiny Mousa Island, off the south-east coast of

Shetland Mainland and reached bv boat from Sandwich. (HU 457237)

.Although needing determination to reach it, this broch is well worth the effort, as it is the best preserved, still standing over 40 feet high. It is a fine examp)le of architecture and workmanship. 'The first 12i feet is of solid drystone construction, and 50 feet in diameter. .Above this it is constructed of two drvstone walls joined together by six stone galleries, the gap between the walls being wide enough to comfortably walk along. .Access to the galleries and wall top is by a spiral stair which is also between the walls. But the galleries were probably not the living quarters, these were at the bottom of the hollow inner core which originally had a wooden floor above ground level, and a roof above that. .A wheelhouse was later constructed within this inner area. Later still, when the broch was alreadv an antiquity, it provided refuge for.orse fugitives, an eloping couple who in

1153 stocked the tower with stores and barricaded themselves inside against their pursuers.

Other well preserved brochs in the Orkney and Shetland islands include:

Brochof Gurness (Orkney Mainland: HY 383268) which had outer defences in the form of three rock-cut ditches; Iron Age debris was found. Later a courtyard house was built and, later still, a Viking long-house.

Midhowe broch (Rousay Island, Orkney: HY 371308), similar to the Gurness broch and also with external defences; it was later adapted for domestic use and some of the stone was used to build huts close by.

Brochof Borland (Shetland Mainland: HL 446360) On acliff promontorv and worth seeing for its situation and as a broch that has not been excavated; the outer defences are massive, and the broch wall is in part still 10 feet high.

Clickhimin (Shetland Mainland, at Lerwick: HU 404132) At this complex and important site are the remains of a courtyard house, a massive outer wall, a ‘block-house’ fort and a broch, with a later wheelhouse inside.