Property in Care (PIC) ID: PIC281 Designations: Scheduled Monument (SM90060) Taken into State care: 1976 (Guardianship) Last reviewed: 2004

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE CARN LIATH ()

We continually revise our Statements of Significance, so they may vary in length, format and level of detail. While every effort is made to keep them up to date, they should not be considered a definitive or final assessment of our properties.

Historic Environment Scotland – Scottish Charity No. SC045925 Principal Office: Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH

Historic Environment Scotland – Scottish Charity No. SC045925 Principal Office: Longmore House, Salisbury Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH CARN LIATH BROCH BRIEF DESCRIPTION

The monument comprises the remains of a broch tower with outbuildings and outworks that date from later prehistoric (Iron-Age) times. The buildings are prominently sited on a grassed sandy knoll rising from the raised beach, close by the sea and a few kilometres to the north of Golspie, . The broch survives to up to 3.6m in height. Two subterranean spaces in the broch’s interior have been filled in.

CHARACTER OF THE MONUMENT Historical Overview • There is a rich and fascinating antiquarian and later history associated with the discovery and interpretation of brochs/complex roundhouses as a whole. This site was first explored by the Duke of Sutherland, whose ancestral home was nearby Dunrobin Castle. The outstanding collection of archaeological finds collected from his Estate in the 19th-century is on display at Dunrobin. • There have been partial excavations of this site in 1868, 1972, 1984 and 1986- 7. • The monument passed into guardianship in 1976. Archaeological Overview • A Bronze-Age cist provides evidence for activity on this site prior to broch construction. • Excavation has determined the sequence of construction at the site, with the entrance passage, outbuildings, and ring walls being slightly later in date than the central broch. No scientific dates exist, however antiquarian interference caused considerable destruction without adequate record. • Broch towers were probably erected to reflect the prestige and status of their inhabitants. While they may also have some defensive qualities, their inhabitants were farmers like nearly everyone else at this time. Nonetheless, there would have been something else, perhaps control over land, people or other resources, that singled broch tower inhabitants out from others. • The artefacts found at excavated broch towers and complex roundhouses often provide evidence for the long-distance contacts and wealth of their inhabitants. At Carn Liath the most important finds include an unusual copper-alloy ingot and a native silver brooch of 4th-/5th-century date that is derived from Roman brooch types. • The nature of broch tower construction may argue for the existence of specialist broch tower builders. If so, this raises interesting question about how society was organised and the role that such people played. • The main centre for the development of complex roundhouses and broch towers would appear to be , which begs a series of questions about the relationship between the élite groups here and those who lived elsewhere in the Atlantic province.

1/3

Artistic/Architectural Overview • Broch towers, drystone structures built with a hollow wall construction containing superimposed galleries and a range of other distinctive architectural features, are a form of roundhouse found exclusively in north and west Scotland. (A small number of monuments in southern Scotland are clearly also influenced by this style of architecture.) They belong to what is known as the Atlantic roundhouse tradition, with origins (in northern Scotland so far only) in massive simple roundhouses (dating around 800-400 BC) and more widespread, complex Atlantic roundhouses (dating around 500-200BC). Dating of the ultimate expression of this architectural form, broch towers, is problematic, but they seem to appear around 200 BC, occupation often being at its peak in the 1st-2nd centuries AD and sometimes continuing as residences (as distinct from places for ‘squatters’) until as late as the mid 1st millennium AD. • This building form is unique to Scotland. Atlantic roundhouses are difficult to classify in the absence of excavation and because they have usually lost their upper levels, but the best estimate is that there may be 500 examples in Scotland of which less than 100 fall into the category of broch towers. • Representative example of solid-based broch towers which tend to be found in the north of the Atlantic province. No evidence survives for upper levels. • Evidence exists for a secondary inner wall lining the interior of the broch. This exemplifies the long and complicated structural history that many such monuments share. • There is considerable debate about what form the roof of broch towers, indeed most Atlantic roundhouses took. This is only one of the many perplexing questions about broch tower construction that make their study so fascinating. • Iron-Age outbuildings clustered around brochs, particularly those arranged in a sub-radial fashion, are rare. They are found in greatest numbers in Orkney, but are also found in Sutherland and, occasionally, Caithness. These organised formal settlements are to be contrasted with the later Pictish and Norse settlement that brochs throughout the Atlantic province often attracted. It can be argued that such villages provide evidence for the inhabitants of certain brochs acquiring increased control over people. Social Overview • There is some local demand to use this broch for special occasions, such as a piping event, when its striking silhouette and wallheads can be used to good effect. Spiritual Overview • The house is at the heart of the community and increasing evidence is being found for how prehistoric house design, including that of broch towers, closely reflected the inhabitants view of the world (cosmology). Religious belief was not divorced from the domestic sphere and we still have much to learn here. The probable ritual function of subterranean spaces and ‘wells’ within the interior of brochs is now being recognised.

2/3

Aesthetic Overview • The monument complex has a prominent setting and is visible for quite some distance along the raised beach terrace. • The site lies on the extremity of the Dunrobin Castle Designed Landscape. What are the major gaps in understanding of the property? • There are no reliable scientific dates for this site and its development through time.

ASSESSMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Key points

• A good example of a very unusual and sophisticated type of later prehistoric (Iron-Age) settlement that is unique to Scotland and among the best preserved prehistoric architecture in Europe. • Rare instance of broch with associated village; only example on Scottish mainland that is formally presented to the public. • Although the best preserved excavated broch in Sutherland, very little significant information has been derived from the 19th and 20th-century excavations at this site. • Important source of evidence for the nature and complexity of later prehistoric occupation of Scotland both before and beyond the Romanised parts of Britain. • With the notable exception of (), Historic Environment Scotland cares for all the significant ‘broch’ historic attractions in Scotland, and these are well-distributed throughout the area in which Atlantic roundhouses were to be found. Associated Properties

Dun Carloway, , , , Mousa (not least for exceptional height); Gurness, Midhowe (with their associated villages), , Clickhimin, ; Edin’s Hall (related architecture in southern Scotland). Ness of Burgi (related architecture in northern Scotland). The countryside has many unexcavated ‘broch’ mounds and the occasional excavated site, such as the Keiss brochs, Caithness. To date the only significant formal non-Historic Environment Scotland heritage attraction that includes a broch is Old Scatness, Shetland, adjacent to Jarlshof.

The 19th-century finds are at Dunrobin Castle. Keywords broch tower, associated village, later prehistory, Iron Age, subterranean chambers, ingot, silver brooch, Duke of Sutherland.

3/3