Another excellent day visiting the Glenelg Brochs. Gill bravely drove her brand new car
over.
The road to Kylerhea is always
interesting….today we were slowed down by roadworks. I am convinced the workers saw a 2016 reg and
thought “tourists, make them wait!”.
Eventually we were allowed through and onto the little turn table
ferry. Well worth a trip even without
the brochs as the scenery is fantastic and the ferry is quite unique. We made our way through the village – where I
was tempted to stop as there appeared to be a mini Romahome rally – with 3 or 4
micro campervans of the same variety as Gill and I have. (Gill's is more modern than mine:-)
One was exactly the same model as mine and the others rather more modern. However, we didn’t come to look at campervans so onwards we went with a very a brief stop to look at a high river bank known to be home home to the common sandpiper – none were seen but the nest holes were clearly visible.
The first archaeological stop was at Dun Telve. Quite awe inspiring when seen for the first
time. Dun Telve and Dun Troddan are among the best preserved brochs and both are very easily accessed from the
road so are popular venues.
Dun Telve has never been excavated but
was “cleared out” 1914 and a number of stone lamps, quernstones and whorls were
found.
The broch is especially interesting
because of the evidence of the galleries between the walls. The gaps or “windows” into the galleries are
only into the inner wall. The outer wall
is solid stone. These “windows” may have
been designed to relive the pressure on the wall.
There are two scarcement ledges
–(protruding edges of long stone that run through the whole thickness of the wall.) The lower one is at around 2 m. It is assumed the lower scarcement provided
support for a floor which could have been accessed from the stone staircase.
more ......here.
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