Clachtoll Broch An Iron Age Home in Assynt

Over two thousand years ago, Clachtoll Broch stood tall on Scotland's north-west coast. The imposing drystone building, circular in plan, was the family home at the heart of a productive and self-sustaining farmstead in the Iron Age. It was destroyed by a catastrophic fire at the beginning of the first century AD. As the years passed, the ruins became delapidated. Clachtoll Broch's future looked precarious, and the monument became dangerous for visitors - until local community group Historic Assynt stepped in to protect the broch for the future,

Total excavation of the broch yielded astonishing evidence of Iron Age life. Archaeologists worked alongside volunteers to reveal Clachtoll's story. From everyday objects to food waster and flooring; all these contribute to what we now know aboute Clachtoll Broch in the Iron Age.

Text written by Charlotte Douglas, drawing on reports by Graeme Cavers, John Barber, Nicholas Johnstone, Alex Wood, Andy Heald, Dawn McLaren, Jackaline Robertson, Anne Crone, Lynne Roy (all AOC Archaeology Group), Jen Harland, (University of the Highlands and Islands), Penelope Walton Rogers (The Anglo-Saxon Laboratory) and Julie Dunne (University of Bristol). Introductory chapter and acknowledgements by Gordon Sleight (Historic Assynt).