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Broch Of Clickimin

Key Dates

The farmhouse dates from around 1000BC. About 100 years later (100BC) the stone blockhouse was built. By the time the Norse arrived, around 800AD, the broch was abandoned. Haphazard restoration work was carried out around 1850, before professional excavation by archaeologists in the 1950s.

Shetland
United Kingdom

This 3000 year old structure is a big, readily accissible broch (an iron age dry-stoned walled dwelling) that’s in remarkably good shape. It can be found on a small islet in Clickimin Loch by Lerwick on the isle of Shetland in Scotland. It started out life as a small walled bronze age farmstead, before growing into a fortified tower compound. After 500AD it fell out of use, and was found abandoned altogether by the time the Norse turned up in the region around 800AD.
An unusual feature uncommon for brochs is the big stone “blockhouse” which lies between the opening of the enclosure and the doorway to the actual Broch. Also unusual is the stone slab – which bears sculptured footprints – found on the causeway which leads up to the site. A tenuous connection has been made with a similar feature at Dunadd in Argyll, which is considered to have some relation to kingship.

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