Caithness Broch Project facts for kids
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| Formation | October 2013 (company) 29 January 2016 (charity) |
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| Founded at | Caithness |
| Headquarters | Thurso |
| Website | http://www.thebrochproject.co.uk/ |
The Caithness Broch Project is a Scottish charity. It works to make Caithness a popular place for heritage tourism. This means encouraging people to visit and learn about its history.
The group started in October 2013 and became a charity in January 2016. They highlight the many old sites in the area, especially the brochs. Brochs are ancient Iron Age towers made of dry stone. Caithness is known as "the home of the broch" because it has more brochs than any other part of Scotland. Over half of all known broch sites are found here!
The main goal of the project is to build a new broch. This replica will be a fun place for tourists to visit. It will also be an important project for experimental archaeology. This means learning about the past by trying to recreate things. Alyn Smith, a Scottish politician, has praised the project. He called it a great example of people working together to help their community.
What the Project Aims to Do
The Caithness Broch Project has several important goals:
- They want to protect and promote old sites in Caithness. This includes adding better signs, making places easier to reach, and sharing more information.
- They plan to create an archaeology trail around Caithness. This trail will help both locals and visitors learn about the area's history.
- Their biggest goal is to build a copy of an Iron Age broch. They will use old building methods. This new broch will be a tourist spot and a place to learn about dry stone building.
So far, the group has done many community events. They helped preserve Ousdale Broch. They also had an exhibition with a huge 10,000-piece Lego broch! They work with schools and local archaeology groups too.
In 2017, they held the Caithness Broch Festival. This was part of VisitScotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology. The festival included field walking and other hands-on archaeology activities. The Scottish newspaper The National helped spread the word. This festival was part of a three-year plan to learn more about brochs.
Recently, they have improved brochs at Achvarasdal, Thing’s Va, Keiss, and Ousdale. They put up new information signs and made it easier to get to these sites. They also made leaflets with more details. The project worked with ‘Flows to the Future’ to create a sign at Loch Rangag. Plus, you can find free online maps of brochs and other old sites in the region.
The Caithness Broch Project has also caught the eye of the media. They are very active on social media. In 2016, they were on BBC Scotland’s Landward show. The show featured some of the sites and talked about building the replica broch. To promote the project, Dunnet Bay Distillers made a special Broch Rose Gin. Caithness Chocolate also made tiny chocolate brochs!
Ousdale Broch: A Special Project
Between 2015 and 2020, the project managed important work at Ousdale Broch. This broch is located near the border of Caithness and Sutherland. The area around it is also very historic. It includes the ruins of Borg, an old village. The whole area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). This means it's a special place for nature and history.
In 2015, surveys showed that the broch was falling apart. It needed help to be saved. After talking with Historic Environment Scotland, they decided to fix it. They planned the repairs carefully. Then, they applied for money to pay for the work, new signs, a car park, and a path.
Work began in 2019. First, experts recorded the site. Then, they cleared plants and made the structure stronger. They fixed parts like the inside staircase and a special room called a guard cell. They also rebuilt a stone cupboard called an aumbry. The walls and entrance were made stable using a new technique with hardwood pins. This helps stop them from collapsing further.
A new car park and path were built from the A9 road. Information signs were put along the path. These signs tell visitors about the broch and the history of the area.
Future Plans
The main goal of the project is still to build a replica broch. They want to use the same building methods that Iron Age people used. This means they will learn from archaeological research. They will also look at existing brochs that are still standing tall. Good examples are Mousa on Shetland, Dun Carloway on the Isle of Lewis, and Dun Dornaigil in Sutherland.
Brochs are amazing examples of dry stone building. So, building the replica will need help from architects, engineers, and dry stone experts. They are still deciding where the best place to build it will be.
Once the new broch is finished, it will be a new tourist attraction. It will offer a real living history experience from the Iron Age. There will also be an exhibition centre. The project also plans to offer workshops where people can learn dry stone building. This will help keep an old Caithness skill alive.
See also
- Atlantic roundhouse
- Butser Ancient Farm
- North Coast 500
- Oldest buildings in Scotland
- Scottish Crannog Centre
