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Stronsay, Greenhill, North End

Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)

Site Name Stronsay, Greenhill, North End

Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) Green Knowe

Canmore ID 3459

Site Number HY63SW 1

NGR HY 6322 3008

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/3459

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Orkney Islands
  • Parish Stronsay
  • Former Region Orkney Islands Area
  • Former District Orkney
  • Former County Orkney

Archaeology Notes

HY63SW 1 6322 3008.

(HY 6322 3008) Green Hill (NAT)

Brough (NR) (Site of) (NAT)

OS 6"map, Orkney, 2nd ed.,(1900).

An extensive mound of stones with no characteristic features, a circular formation on top being apparently of too great a diameter for a broch, but the whole is so much destroyed that even approximate measurements would be misleading. The mound is traditionally regarded as an abode of the 'trows'.

The field in which the mound lies is known as 'The Hillocks' which suggests the presence of other mounds in the immediate neighbourhood (See HY62NW 15 & 16).

RCAHMS 1946, visited 1928; Name Book 1879.

Green Hill, an amorphous mound covering an area of about 40.0m in diameter which shows traces of structures of indeterminate nature.

Visited by OS(AA) 16 July 1970.

In a corner of the airfield, and unaffected by it, there is a shapeless mound some 40m across; in old quarry hollows are exposures of stone rubble and some earthfast slabs.

A broch and attendant outbuildings may be indicated.

Visited July 1979

RCAHMS 1984.

Topographic and section recording was carried out at six coastally eroding sites, as part of a pilot programme to evaluate intermediate level responses to coastal erosion. Erosion of up to 17m has been recorded since 1881. Permanent markers were erected at five sites to assist in calculating future erosion damage.

HY 6322 3008 (Scheduled) Topographic survey recorded a bank, with entrance-passage, surrounding the broch and outbuildings both inside and outside of this bank. Deposits visible in the 44m of recorded section exposure appeared to relate to an outbuilding with substantial curving drystone walls. Hearth settings visible in 1995 were probably located within this structure. The hearths, along with midden-type deposits, were situated on a 1m wide 'shelf' of till in front of the exposed section in 1995: the shelf and archaeological deposits have now been completely eroded.

Sponsors: Historic Scotland

G Wilson and H Moore 1996

Activities

Field Visit (July 1979)

Large mound with many exposures of stone rubble in quarry

holes, in some earthfast slabs. May be a broch with outworks and

outbuildings. Now on side of pasture field kept level and mown

for use as airfield, but mound appears not to have been damaged.

Information from Orkney SMR (RGL) Jul 79.

Publication Account (2002)

HY63 8 GREEN HILL 1

HY/63223008

Possible broch on Stronsay, consisting of an extensive but shapeless mound of stones at the edge of the airfield and close to the shore. Quarry holes have exposed some earth-fast slabs. In 1996 a topographic survey recorded a bank surrounding the broch with an entrance in it; hearths and fragments of walling nearby probably relate to outbuildings [4]. Further erosion has removed some of these remains.

Sources: 1. OS card HY 63 sW 1: 2. RCAHMS 1946, 2, no. 948, 328: 3. Lamb 1984, 24: 4. Discovery and Excavation 1996, 80.

E W MacKie 2002

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