Images reveal how replica broch will be a towering attraction for Caithness
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Plans to create a replica broch in Caithness have taken a step forward with the release of detailed images revealing what the towering structure will look like.
The visuals were created by digital reconstruction artist Bob Marshall for Caithness Broch Project (CBP) as part of its vision for the first broch to be built in Scotland in 2000 years.
The archaeological charity believes the 40ft replica can become a thriving visitor attraction and "an icon for the county".
Brochs – double-walled, drystone towers found only in Scotland – were common features in the Iron Age landscape across the Highlands and Islands, and Caithness can lay claim to having more brochs than anywhere else.
CBP is seeking to construct the monument using traditional tools and techniques.
The replica broch has been designed by CBP co-founder and director Iain Maclean, incorporating flourishes such as triangular doorway lintels, cells built into the broch itself and a series of outbuildings.
“We wanted to capture a variety of features found in broch construction from all over Scotland, so the design isn't a carbon copy of any individual broch but instead is a kind of chimaera of elements chosen for a number of reasons – ranging from structural robustness to health and safety, or purely because they were interesting features," Mr Maclean said.
"There were elements of the design, such as the roof and the construction of the floors, that had to be figured out with a degree of educated guesswork and speculation, given that none of these survive in the archaeological record. It's as honest an interpretation of what a broch looked like as we may ever arrive at.”
It is hoped that the project will become an important visitor attraction for Caithness.
“This project will be a hugely important one for the county,” CBP director Kenneth McElroy said. “Not only do we want this to become a sustainable and successful contribution to the economy of Caithness, but it could become an icon for the county too.”
The charity hopes to acquire land for the broch construction within the next year, with funding from a variety of sources. By 2023 it is hoped the project can begin in earnest, involving a range of skilled heritage craftspeople.
Mr McElroy gave an insight into the work of CBP and its "flagship" broch-building project in a recent interview for Wick Voices, the Wick Society's online oral history project.
“Not only are we building a broch, we are building a kind of tourist experience," he said. "We want to transport them back to the Iron Age, we want to take them back 2000 years, but we also want to make sure that this is a sustainable and successful business model."
