Monument record MHG13495 - Crosskirk Bay

Delete - relink to ND07SW0004
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ND07SW 4 0248 7012.

(ND 0248 7112) Broch (NR) (rems of)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

The broch at Crosskirk Bay, Reay, has an internal diameter of approximately 30 to 32ft and a wall 14 to 15ft thick. It has been broken into from the S, where there appears to have been an entrance to the left of which the sides of a chamber are visible in the wall. At the edge of the cliff, some 20ft of wall about 4 to 5ft high is exposed. On the landward side about 10ft from the broch are the remains of an outer bank or wall, now some 8ft wide at the base.
RCAHMS 1911; H Dryden 1871 (Soc of Antiqs Ms No. 21)

A rectangular symbol stone, 2ft 3ins high and 2ft 2ins wide, a facsimile of which is at Thurso Castle, is said to have been found at this broch and to have been given to the King of Denmark by Sir George Sinclair.
J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; J Stuart 1856.

This broch survives as a grass-covered circular enclosure, 1.1m maximum height internally. Traces of the outer wall face, 1.5m maximum height, are exposed in the SW, and in the N where the cliff edge has eroded. There the thickness of the wall is 5.5m. There is no evidence of the original entrance but it may have been in the S where the feature has been mutilated by excavation. Around the E periphery of the broch there is a shallow depression, and on the SW side a bank, 0.5m maximum height, may have formed part of the outer defences.
No further information could be found regarding the symbol stone found here.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 28 October 1964.

This broch was excavated by Dr H Fairhurst and Mr D Taylor between 1966 and 1972. The wall survived to a maximum height of about 2.0m internally, and contained a rock-cut well. A rock-cut ditch encircled the tower, and the area between ditch and broch was fully occupied by secondary domestic structures. At the conclusion of the excavation the broch was buldozed over the edge of the cliff, and nothing remains of it or the otuworks apart from some walling in the cliff face. A modern cairn marks the site.
A full excavation report is pending.
Visited by OS (N K B) 13 November 1981; Information from R B Gourlay, Highland Region Archaeologist.

The remains of this broch, unsafe through coastal erosion, was excavated by Fairhurst and Taylor from 1966 to 1972 on behalf of DoE, before being demolished, earthed over and seeded with grass. The excavation revealed evidence of a secondary settlement within an outwork on the east, and an extension of the entrance passage east-wards, part of which was converted,in the last stages of occupation, into a souterrain. The outwork commenced in the east in front of the broch entrance, as a wall 15'thick with an earth core. Further to the west where bedrock came near the surface, the outwork continued as a terrace-like feature with a 'cell-like' structure behind. In front was a ditch, largely natural, which was 3m deep. In the extreme west fence of flag-stones seems to have completed the defences. One of the final episodes in the occupation of the site was a burial in the centre of a roughly circular dwelling. The body had been placed in a sitting position and was unaccompanied by grave-goods. As well as native pottery, bonework, querns, etc., finds included 2nd century Samian and a fragment of possibly Roman glass, now in NMAS.
H Fairhurst, D B Taylor and A Morrison 1966; H Fairhurst 1969; H Fairhurst and D B Taylor 1970; 1971; 1972.

Bronze spiral finger-rings.
E W MacKie 1971

Evidence of occupation as late as the 8th century was found during the excavations.
E W MacKie 1975.

Scheduled with adjacent chapel (ND07SW 1).
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 30 June 1995.



Class I symbol stone (lost) showed a crescent and V-rod and a horseshoe.
A.Mack 1997 p.141