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MHG10137 - Broch - Marrel, Strath of Kildonan

Summary

No summary available.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

Documentary and cartographic references to a broch below Craig Marrill in the valley of Helmsdale Water.

There is a broch in the Helmsdale valley, about 1.5 miles from sea on S side of the valley, below Craig Marril (ND 01 17). Its ruins are covered by the Caithness Railway. A steatite cup was found on it. <1>

No trace found during field perambulation.
Visited by OS (W D J) 27 May 1960.

No trace of this broch was discovered after further field perambulation and local inquiry.
Visited by OS (J B) 24 September 1976.

In Dunrobin Museum is a shale ring (Acc No:1870.10) 'found in the broch opposite Caen Burn, Strath of Kildonan' (This would locate the broch to appro. ND 015 174); and also a steatite cup or lamp 2.7ins high by 4.4ins in diameter 'from Marrel near Helmsdale' (Acc No: 1969.4) (This is presumably the cup referred to by Anderson 1873).
Info from TS of the Catalogue of Dunrobin Museum by A S Henshall.

ND01 1 CAEN BURN 1 ('Helmsdale Valley', 'Craig Marril')
ND/015174
Site of possible broch in Kildonan parish, Sutherland, about 2.25km (1.4 miles) from the sea and now covered by the railway line [2]; no trace of it was found in recent times [1, 3]. A steatite cup is reported to have been found in it [2] and this, and a shale ring which may also be from the site, are in the Dunrobin Museum [1]. The grid reference is taken from the find spot described for the ring [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 01 NW 34: 2. Anderson 1873, 188: 3. Swanson (ms) 1985, 777. <2>

The stone cup from Marrel and shale ring from opposite Caen burn (now identified as a spindle whorl), are on display at Timespan Museum (2019), having been loaned from Dunrobin Castle Museum. They are labelled 2 and 3 in attached photo. The spindle whorl may have come from MHG10131. <3>

It is almost certain that OS investigators in the 1960s and 70s were looking for this broch in the wrong place. It had previously been given in essence a marginal grid reference based on the mis-interpretation of the location of another currently lost broch (see MHG10178) from the finding of a shale ring "...found in the broch opposite Caen Burn" and this is where this broch (MHG10137) had been assigned its previous grid reference (NH 015 174). However, there is an estate map in the Sutherland Estate Collections (digital versions available on the NLS website) surveyed by John Kirk in 1772 and included in a survey book of farms in Golspie and Loth parishes which shows a large circular feature labelled 'Achacairn' at a point above the cultivated fields of 'Marrill' estimated to be c.610m to the north-northwest of where the Helmsdale Water takes an almost right angle bend in its own flood plain. The feature appears to be shown as constructed with an outer thick wall and a vague indication of some kind of internal feature. As indicated by Anderson in 1883 (see <1>) this site would fit the location of the lost broch in this area to be "…covered by the line of the Caithness railway". On the OS 1st Edtion map, surveyed and published prior to the construction of the 'Caithness Railway' this precise area is shown as a sub circular patch of rough ground. SEPA LiDAR data also shows slight indications of one side of a slightly depressed area immediately adjacent to the west side of the railway embankment. Modern vertical aerial photography shows this area to be a small open grassy field and therefore potentially available for investigation [IS-L 20/10/2025]. <4> <5> <6>

Sources/Archives (6)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred ND 0181 1682 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	ND01NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	KILDONAN

Finds (2)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

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External Links (2)