Standing in the midst of the stunning Scottish wilderness for the past 2,000 years,
these mysterious stone structures are the symbol of
Scotland's unique archaeological past.
Known as a broch, the exact purpose of these iconic Iron Age
ruins is still unknown.
However, a group of experimental archaeologists believe
that an ambitious project to build a broch from scratch could finally help
us to better understand their past.
A broch is a huge Iron Age structure made completely
of dry stone with walls five metres thick.
We don't have a name for the tribes of people that lived here,
and that's perhaps part of the mystery of what a broch was used for.
The current academic thinking is that they were houses,
houses with five metres thick walls and 13 metres high. Still
after hundreds of years of archaeology.
We're not entirely sure. We have a modern perception of what buildings are.
The most complete broch still standing is Mousa broch,
which can be found in Shetland.
Mousa broch is the most intact broch that we have.
It does of course have a secondary structure from
the later occupation phase built inside it,
but we do have a good sense of
what a broch may have been in its completed form.
Dry stone towers of that size, and you especially see it with Mousa, is
a difficult endeavor to begin with to build one.
The fact that they have lasted as long as they have, the fact
that they go through several phases of occupation spanning
somewhere around a thousand years is attractive to a heritage tourist.
It's difficult to prove what a broch is for, for a variety of levels.
I will say, however, that the preponderance
of evidence that we have for broch occupation is domestic in nature.
So you'll find, for instance, tools that are related to agriculture
or to raising of cattle, quern-stones, pottery.
This is typically what is found inside of broch, rather
than what some people would expect with a defensive looking structure.
There's very little weaponry that's ever found in them. But
it goes also back to, and I'll quote or paraphrase Ian Ahmed here,
which is that the language guides the narrative in many ways.
Just the labeling of of a broch comes from the Old Norse word 'borga',
which indicates that it's a fortification.
So already we're thinking of something that is defensive in nature.
The Caithness Broch Project as an experimental archaeological initiative, aiming to build a full-scale broch
from scratch using traditional methods.
It is a hugely ambitious undertaking
as so little is known about these mysterious buildings.
I think it's a very adventurous idea to build.
a broch, it will teach us an incredible amount about how to go about building
and dry stone to build a structure so large.
In the design of our broch we've tried to base it as much
as we can on archaeological evidence.
I think what we really hope to achieve is a more thorough understanding
of brochs, and how they were built
might kind of play into ideas of why they were built as well.
So as we go through the process of constructing a broch,
then maybe we'll get a better insight into the minds of broch builders in the past as well,
because there are so many unanswered questions about the Iron Age:
How did Iron Age societies work?
How do they kind of revolve around the brochs or how did brochs
revolve around Iron Age societies?
We have done archaeological excavations
at a number of broch sites across Caithness.
We've done talks, we've done walks, we've done art exhibitions.
We've done a huge conservation project at Ousdale Broch as well.
Another really important part of this is that we wanted to make brochs fun and accessible and engaging
and we thought that Lego was a super format for that.
We hope that the building of this broch will be as much of an attraction
as visiting it as a complete structure.
And just like the 13th Century castle that's being built, Guédelon in France,
people have been coming to that structure for years
and it isn't even finished. They're coming to see it be built,
not coming to visit as a finished structure.
But I think once the broch is completed and people come here to visit it as a tourist attraction,
it ceases to be an experimental archaeological project,
it starts to become an experiential archaeological project.
These structures may be ancient,
but they have proved inspirational for modern architecture.
Adam Keleher had his stunning home designed
to replicate the style of the Scottish broch.
We felt we wanted something that would integrate with the landscape
and wouldn't look alien to the landscape. And when you look
at traditional dwellings, there are very few straight lines.
The vision behind it was to actually make it look as if it was an actual ruin.
If we knew how challenging it would have been,
we probably wouldn't have done it because obviously
we were pushing the boundaries really in terms of dry stone wall.
I mean, it is a real labour of love. Each stone had to be placed in there.
There's nothing regular in the way it's been built.
These sorts of things that allow us to connect with the past and
to understand that a lot of people have walked on this land before us,
I think are very, very important. When we were looking at this place,
we had an intention to build something remarkable,
something quite dramatic, and the broch was foremost in my mind.
So that really was the inception of the project.
I looked at a good few before I designed this one,
into the brochs of Glenelg. And the stonework on those
was much better than we can expect masons to do today
and we simply lost the skills that can do that sort of masonry.
These structures are built of dry stone masonry
and it's a bit of a dying art in the north of Scotland.
So we hope to create a traditional skills workshop
where people could come and learn the skills of dry stone dyking.
Most brochs are found right here in Caithness.
So we like to think that Caithness is the home of the brch.
For too many years people have driven through Caithness to go to Orkney to see archaeology.
They've driven right past everything that we've got to offer.
So we hope what will happen in the future as people will
still go to Orkney to see archaeology,
but when they come back through Caithness they'll see a fully rebuilt Iron Age broch.
The Caithness Broch Project is currently searching
for an ideal site to begin the construction of their broch.
And they estimate it could be between three to five years
before they finally achieve their goal
of bringing this enigmatic building back to the Scottish countryside.
Their so unique to Scotland, their a real symbol of Scottish archaeology,
and they're just beautiful constructions, you know,
they're really well made,
they are enigmatic, they are impressive,
they are just stunning structures.