Home / Scotland / Highland / Skirza Head
Skirza Head
Highland, Scotland ยท Atlas SC2819
Location
- Atlas number
- SC2819 (2819)
- Country
- Scotland
- Current county or unitary authority
- Highland
- Historic county
- Caithness
- Parish, community, or townland
- Canisbay
- National Grid reference
- ND 3940 6844
- Latitude
- 58.59978
- Longitude
- -3.04441
- Altitude
- 30 m
Form and condition
- Type
- promontory fort
- Condition
- Extant
- Morphology
- partial univallate
- Complete rampart circuit
- No
- Number of ramparts
- 1
- Ramparts by quadrant
- NE 0, SE 0, SW 1, NW 0
- Number of ditches
- 1
- Possible original entrances
- 0
- Breaks through the ramparts
- 0
- Enclosed area
- 0.16 ha
- Also recorded
- ditches
Landscape
- Topographic position
- coastal promontory
- Aspect
- level
- Land use
- coastal grassland
- Water source
- well or cistern
Dating
- Dating
- undated
- Dating reliability
- D - None
Interior and investigation
- Finds
- pottery, metalworking, animal bones, and lithics
- Investigations
- 1st Identified Map Depiction (1873); Excavation (1901); Other (1910); Other (1938); Other (1963); Other (1965); Other (1971); Excavation (1972); Other (1980); Other (1982); Other (1985); Earthwork Survey (2000)
Identifiers
- Scheduled monument number
- 580
- HER
- Highland HER MHG655
- National record
- record ND 36 NE 2; monument 9271
- Wikidata
- Q31101437
Sources
References
- Anderson, J (1901) 'Notices of nine Brochs along the Caithness coast from Keiss Bay to Skirza Head, excavated by Sir Francis Tress Barry, Bart., MP., of Keiss Castle, Caithness'. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 35 (1900-1, 112-53)
- Batey, C E (1982) Caithness coastal survey 1982: interim reports 1980-2, typescript Durham University (Available in RCAHMS ).
- Heald and Jackson, A and A (2000) 'Caithness, Highland (Canisbay; Wick parishes), survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 1 (2000), 50
- Lamb, R G (1980) Iron Age promontory forts in the Northern Isles. Brit Archaeol Rep, British Ser 79. BAR: Oxford
- MacKie, E W (2007) The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c.700 BC-AD 500: architecture and material culture, the Northern and Southern Mainland and the Western Islands, BAR British series 444(II), 444(1), 2 V. BAR: Oxford
- MacKie, E W (1972) 'Canisbay, Skirza Head, broch'. Disc Exc Scot (1972), 16-17
- RCAHMS (1911) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Third report and inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Caithness. HMSO, London
- Swanson, C B (1988) A contribution to the understanding of brochs, Unpublished Ph D thesis. University of Edinburgh