Broch

Brough, or Burg, round towers found in northern Scotland and in the Western Isles. The walls, built of dry stone without mortar, are from ten to twenty feet thick at the base. They rise in some instances to a height of fifty feet and inclose a circular plat of ground from twenty-five to fifty feet in diameter. The tower is entered by a single doorway large enough for a domestic animal. The lower part of the wall is occupied by chambers opening upon the inner court. Above the chambers, at a height of about ten feet from the ground, a horizontal gallery about a yard wide and high enough to permit a man to stand upright, runs completely around the tower. It is accessible by a single stairway. Windows from the gallery look out upon the court. If the walls be high enough, a second or even a third gallery adds its circuit, with windows directly above those of the first. Many of these towers were built on rocky promontories, points of land extending into the water of a lake, or places of natural strength, not infrequently surrounding a well or spring of water. Stout doors in the main entrance, outer walls, and dry ditches render it very probable that these towers were constructed by the rude inhabitants as a place of refuge for themselves and their cattle. Unless taken by surprise before they could provision their stronghold, it is evident that a neighborhood could hold out behind these fireproof walls for an indefinite time against any ordinary attack.

In some respects, these places of refuge suggest the cliff dwellings of Arizona, but they are thought to be relatively modern. Zealous antiquarians have unearthed bits of whalebone and cod, showing that the builders were fishers; remnants of bones of the deer, ox, sheep, goat, and pig suggest some forwardness in husbandry; there are evidences of spinning and weaving; stone lamps, bowls, cups, mortars, and pestles throw some light on their household arts; bone and horn implements testify to native ingenuity; bronze articles and iron spears, swords, knives, axes, and chisels show that these builders and occupiers had traffic with southern Europe. In all probability the brochs were constructed by the Celtic Highlanders as a defense against the Norse Vikings that devastated the coasts of western Europe for several centuries after the abandonment of Great Britain by the Romans in 410.