Tour Scotland Photograph Dun Telve Broch Glenelg Scotland

Tour Scotland photograph of Dun Telve Broch, Glenelg, South of Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland. Dun Telve is one of the best preserved Scottish brochs. A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. The stone ruins here stand over thirty feet tall, and but a part of the story of this broch. Modern excavators found holes for stout wooden posts in the floor, hinting at a now vanished, raised floor platform, or possibly even two, covered by a sloping roof, with a central hole for letting light in and smoke out. A ledge high on the inner wall face may have carried the outer edge of such a structure. It seems likely that the inhabitants lived in reasonable comfort in this wooden structure rather than in the cramped, damp and murky galleries within the stone walls, these being used for storage. The stone stairway, too, may have been unimportant in daily life, with access to the upper levels and wallhead by wooden ladders. Even as partly ruined structures, the brochs of Glenelg bear witness to the ingenuity of Scotland's Iron Age farmers faced with a threat whose nature we can only guess at.



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