Region : Shetland Home
Island : Mousa Map
Town or village : Sandwick List
Grid Reference : HU 457 236 Glossary
Period : 100 BC-AD 300 Bibliography
Mousa

BROCH
Mousa image

 
The best preserved broch in Scotland: it is over 13m tall, little short of its original height. This magnificent building stands on a rocky headland on the west coast of the uninhabited island of Mousa (Shetland). Despite traces of outbuildings, the broch has never been surrounded by a village.
The tower's diameter is 15m at the base, tapering to 12m at the top. The walls are 4.5m thick, leaving an interior only 6m across, further reduced by the insertion of a later wheelhouse.
There is only one narrow entrance, with no guard cells, but there are three large cells within the thickness of the wall-base. A stone stair rises spirally inside the wall, lit by vertical gaps in the inner broch's face.
In care of Historic Scotland