Dun Carloway Broch On Visit To Isle Of Lewis Outer Hebrides Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish music, of Dun Carloway Broch, Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Chàrlabhaigh, on visit to the west coast of the of Isle Of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification complex Atlantic roundhouse. Most brochs were built in the period from 100 BC to 100 AD. Dun Carloway, looking out to Loch Roag, was probably built in the 1st century AD. It probably got its current name from the Norse Karlavagr, meaning Karl's bay, a relic of its time as part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The broch was occasionally used in later times as a stronghold. The Morrisons of Ness put Dun Carloway into use in 1601. The story goes that they had stolen cattle from the MacAuleys of Uig. The MacAuleys wanted their cattle back and found the Morrisons in the broch. One of them, Donald Cam MacAuley, climbed the outer wall using two daggers and managed to smoke out the inhabitants by throwing heather into the broch and then setting fire to it. The MacAuleys then destroyed the broch. Presumably in the 16th century the walls of the broch were still largely intact. By the middle of the 19th century a large portion of the top of the wall had disappeared, the stones being re-used in other buildings. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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