Monument record MHG674 - Broch, Tulach Lochain Bhraseil

Tulach Lochain Bhraseil, Westerdale, ND15SW0019

Brochs are round, tower-like houses, their monumental size intended to display the wealth and status of the agricultural communities who lived in them. They were occupied in the later Iron Age and occur frequently in north and west of Scotland. (41)

This broch, like many other Caithness examples, survives as a low grassy mound, with a number of large stones protruding from it. In this case, a modern cairn has been built on its summit. The mound lies in a level field, close to the River Thurso.

There is little here, apart from the sheer scale of the mound and a slight suggestion of the ‘mound-on-mound’ effect, which may reflect buried outbuildings around the central tower, to confirm that this is a broch. Another large mound, just to the north east, may also contain a broch.

Armit, I., 1997. Celtic Scotland. Edinburgh: Batsford.

RCAHMS. 1911. Caithness. Edinburgh: HMSO, 41, No. 143.
Information from SCRAN Project, March, 2000


ND15SW 19 1282 5203.

(ND 1282 5203) Tulach Lochain Bhraiseil (Brough) (NR)
OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1908)

Mound, 'Tulach Lochain Bhraiseil': About 1/4 mile NNW of Westerdale bridge is a conical grassy mound of artificial character. There is no depression in the top and the greatest elevation is about 10ft. In diameter it measures about 119ft N-s by 103ft transversely. There is nothing to indicate whether this is a cairn or a broch, but from it shape it is possibly the former.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

The remains of this feature are as described above; it has more the appearance of a cairn than a broch. A modern cairn has been erected on the top. Visited by OS (E G C) 15 April 1962.

Tulach Lochain Bhraiseil (NR) OS 6" map, (1963)

Tulach Lochain Bhraiseil is a turf-covered broch-mound generally as described by the RCAHMS (1911), situated in a level field. It measures overall 35.0m N-S by 32.0m and 2.5m maximum height towards to SE quarter, where it is surmounted by a modern cairn. Some 6.0m inside the W edge of the mound is an earthfast boulder slab 1.2m long N-S by 0.6m broad and visible to a height of 0.4m; in the SE, 3.5m in from the periphery, is another, smaller, slab which is on line with a slight scarp around the S quarter of the mound, thereby creating in part the mound-on-mound effect common to Caithness brochs. One or both slabs may be outer facing-stones of the broch itself.
Visited by OS (N K B) 19 February 1982

'Broch', 'Tulach Lochain Bhraseil'. Dimensions: 35 x 32m. Grass-covered mound 2.5m high, with mound on the mound formation.
R J Mercer, NMRS MS/828/19, 1995