Scheduled Monument
Loch of Houlland, broch, Villians of UreSM2075
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 30/06/1934
- Last Date Amended
- 29/04/1996
- Type
- Prehistoric domestic and defensive: broch
- Local Authority
- Shetland Islands
- Parish
- Northmaven
- NGR
- HU 21375 79161
- Coordinates
- 421375, 1179161
Description
The monument comprises the remains of an Iron Age broch with associated and later walling, causeways and other structures.
The broch is set on a flat promontory in Loch of Houlland. It survives as a mound of rubble in which details of the original construction can be seen. The broch walling still stands to 4m high, especially on the N and NE sides. The overall diameter has been 18m, with a wall thickess of about 4.5m. The entrance has been on the WSW, with a guard-cell to the right. There are three lines of walling across the promontory, with an entrance passage cutting the outer two and running over the innermost. These do not seem to have been very substantial, but this may be a false impression given by subsequent stone-robbing. There are traces of small oval or sub-rectangular buildings, probably later than the broch but possibly still prehistoric, on the SW side of the broch and on the landward side, as well as at the landward end of the promontory. There are also rectangular foundations of more recent date SSW of the broch. In addition, two causeways have been built out into the loch. One runs from the S side of the broch to a small islet, and a second runs from the islet NW back to the shore. There are traces of quarrying on the slopes to the landward side of the promontory.
The broch is already scheduled, but this rescheduling is to extend the protected area to include all of the structural remains on the landward side of the promontory and also the area of loch bed around and between the causeways, and around the broch.
The area to be scheduled is an irregular D-shape. It measures 80m NE-SW by a maximum of 95m, to include all of the features described above and an area around them, including a portion of the bed of the loch, in which further related structures and deposits are likely to survive. This area is shown in red on the accompanying map extract.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.
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