Carloway Broch, like a broken tooth on the jaw of the Island of Lewis

  
   
 
 
 
 


This is Carloway Broch, on the Island of Lewis in Scotland looking something like a broken tooth on the jaw of the island. It's a fortified home built during the Iron Age some 2,100 years ago. Much of the stone from the broch will have been used by locals over the centuries to build their cottages. Brochs, unique to Scotland, are dry-stone, twin-walled, round towers up to 30m across and 15m high.

 

  
 
 
       

Until recently nobody had really understood how they were built when in 2004 a broch was built at Strathyre, Scotland by the West of Scotland Dry Walling Association using only tools used around 2000 years ago. A team of 20 spent five days constructing a 5m high section of the Dun Lubnaig Broch. One of the methods they used in its construction was to include flat stones sloped outwards in the thickness of the wall to expel rainwater to the exterior. After the Dun Lubnaig Broch was complete the team estimated it would take 2,500 tons of stone and a year to complete a full 8m high broch and another year or two to collect the stones. A DVD available at www.brochbuild.co.uk documents the project.

The stone walls of Carloway Broch once stood 13m (42ft) high. What remains now on the south side is 9.2m (30ft) high. The external diameter of Carloway Broch is 14.3m (47ft), the internal diameter of the inner courtyard is 7.4m (24ft). The walls vary in thickness from 2.9m (9ft) to 3.8m (12.5ft) from the southeast to the north.

The entrance is located on the northwest side and is only 75cm (2.5ft) wide and 1m (3ft) high.