To Build a Broch

What's a broch?

Brochs are a unique aspect of Scotland’s rich prehistoric tapestry. These distinctive circular drystone towers display quite startling structural complexity. They rise high from their foundations by employing a series of weight-saving and load-bearing galleries, stairways and passages within their double-skinned walls.

There’s no ‘standard’ broch, no ‘broch blueprint’. Brochs were a diverse collection of distinctive structural components, present in different ways within individual sites, although each reflecting the same architectural tradition.

To Build a Broch: From Construction to Conservation front cover

Where are they found?

They’re mostly found in the north and west Highlands and Islands, with some unusual lowland outliers. 

When were they built?

They were built in the Iron Age, around 400 BC, and are part of a wider architectural tradition of building large domestic roundhouses in both stone and timber that developed over many centuries. Brochs are defended homesteads, commissioned by well-to-do productive households and constructed by experienced builders.

To Build a Broch learning resource

To Build a Broch describes the building of a broch over 2,000 years ago. It presents a story of complex structural engineering and bold architectural design. Download it below to explore an amazing vernacular building tradition that was the height of fashion over 2,000 years ago.

To Build a Broch: From Construction to Conservation (PDF)
PDF
8.6Mb

Gabh ceum air ais ann an tìm agus cleachd do mhac-meanmna gus smaoineachadh air dùn a thogail le cloich is fiodh, agus faighnich dhìot fhèin dè bha e a’ ciallachadh a bhith a’ togail dùn.

A Thogail Dùn: Bho Thogail gu Glèidheadh (PDF)
PDF
8.25Mb

Who’s the booklet for?

The booklet aims to help teachers use the study of Scotland’s brochs as a cross-disciplinary classroom topic as part of the Curriculum for Excellence (third level), blending:

  • History
  • Geography
  • English
  • Creative arts

Booklet themes

Using this booklet, readers will explore three interlinked themes running through broch studies:

  1. The archaeological narrative considers questions of architectural design. It aims to get the reader thinking about how brochs were built, who built them, and why.
  2. The structural narrative encourages the reader to consider the buildings they see today in terms of their structural engineering and their various structural components. It also encourages readers to think about the destruction process and the material missing from the picture.
  3. The conservation narrative describes more recent and contemporary interventions such as structural consolidation, archaeological excavation, conservation management and digital documentation.