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<< Our Photo Pages >> Ness of Woodwick - Broch or Nuraghe in Scotland in Orkney

Submitted by howar on Saturday, 20 November 2010  Page Views: 4285

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Ness of Woodwick
Country: Scotland County: Orkney Type: Broch or Nuraghe
 Nearest Village: Redland
Map Ref: HY40072487
Latitude: 59.106463N  Longitude: 3.048097W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Craig of Ritten broch is 50~60' diameter. Outer wall is at shore level to the right (Vote or comment on this photo)
Broch in Orkney

From the ferry looking north of the Woodwick woods I could make out the looming remains of the Ness of Woodwick broch in Evie (NMRS record no. HY42SW 9 at HY40072487). Hedges notes that the rocky outcrops and sand below would be a good place to haul up a boat. This site is between the Loch of Vastray, a freshwater lochan, and the Rendall-Evie parish boundary at Woodwick's sea inlet. Though the site is called the Ness of Woodwick, after the headland, this is very obviously the Craig of Ritten/Rittin. The 'crag' is an impressive mound with dimensions estimated as 50-60 feet across with an inner diameter about half that - in 1946 at the seaward side to the NE about 20' of outer wall (thought to be the outer wall-face) could be observed. No midden was seen. Twenty years later most of this outer wall was overgrown like the rest of the mound. On a wider view there are two stone-walled enclosures running south of the mound that feel old, though post-broch they are in the right situation to replace outbuildings if this were a broch settlement like Gurness. I wonder if ritten could possibly be an error for pitten to give us a name Pict's Crag ?? Alternatively a ret is an enclosure used during sheep-shearing.
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Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Low wall by broch (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Southern view of broch mound showing single course turf-covered wall, chiefly made of made of vertical slabs, running to it. Intriguing but date ? (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : View along broch mound to bank behind the later enclosure (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Southern side of mound with exposed wall. Also visible near top right edge of image is stone from another bit (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Southern side of broch with wall course partly exposed (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : View from broch across lumps and bumps inside enclosure and out

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Wall exposure at top of northern side

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Top of northern side of mound with part of wall exposed

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Sideways look across basal wall

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Exposed basal wall is only just above shoreline!

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Looking from shore in front of mound with basal wall showing

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Coming from northwards along shore

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Looking down from track onto broch mound

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Broch and later enclosure seen from side of Vishall Hill

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Composite satellite image of site

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Craig of Ritten broch mound and one of possible enclosures with trackway down to the beach

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by howar : Craig of Ritten from Rousay ferry - look to the north of the wood at Woodwick

Ness of Woodwick
Ness of Woodwick submitted by Creative Commons : Broch at the Craig of Ritten This one, as is often the case, has a beautiful situation. It is one of several nearby, the largest by far being that at Gurness, 3 km to the NE. They are of course, a Pictish construction. Copyright Ian Balcombe and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence

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"Ness of Woodwick" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Re: Ness of Woodwick by howar on Sunday, 12 April 2015
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Even taking photos along the way it took me under 50 minutes to reach the broch mound from the Evie Road, but you can get by car much of the way. Just north of Woodwick is the Ardwick Road, go up this to the top where there are several farms clustered together. Behind Arwick there is a half-snapped-off sign for the beach (wonderful how markers self-destruct in Orkney) and you continue down past Lower Bisgarth to where there is a parting of the ways. From Vishall Hill you can make out the broch because of the brightness of the later drywall enclosure stuck behind it. On the left a farmtrack goes to the sands by the northern side of the lochan (with its almost vestigial ayre) while on the right you take what is almost a farm road down to the shore and turn to your right for the Ness of Woodwick. I went at low tide but it seemed to me that you could walk the outside of the field with care if the tide were too high. Even though on the map the Craig of Ritten juts out it felt to me more as if the broch mound was tucked into the land. Though the 20' internal wall arc mentioned in the report is indeed hidden now there is another exposed at the bottom of the tower, not much above the shore so easily masked if you visit on an incoming tide. It struck me that the tower must survive under the mound almost complete. All over the mound you can find the odd stone. However the nature of a broch is that these being isolated I could not tell if these were simply part of the massively wide broch tower wall or parts of other structures. Clambering up to the top I could see several lumps and bumps inside the medaeval/'modern' enclosure and just beyond it. What with the surviving height of the broch tower and the topography I would deem it likely that the rest of the broch settlement survives under the turf. I wish I could find my Photoshopped version of the 'original' Google Earth image I found, as it clearly showed the tower outworks as a surviving plan despite the ground cover. On the composite image from two satellites you can still make out a figure-of-eight with one side a dark line of inner and outer broch tower arcs and connection (?entrance side). Also away from the main broch you can see the bumps I saw. Most obvious is a beetle shaped oval directly adjoining, almost entirely contained by one side of the 'modern' enclosure. Which makes the site extend inland like the other Evie brochs.
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Re: Ness of Woodwick by howar on Tuesday, 19 February 2013
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A Google satellite image shows the western half of the broch tower walls as plain as a pikestaff. Attached to and surrounding this, and occupying much of the eastern half of the modern enlosure close to, is a large oval patch in a deeper green that looks likely to be an area of broch settlement. The pic is so full of potential detail that I wish I could post it here
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Re: Ness of Woodwick by howar on Sunday, 27 January 2013
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From the ferry looking north of the Woodwick woods I could make out the looming remains of the Ness of Woodwick broch in Evie (NMRS record no. HY42SW 9 at HY40072487). Hedges notes that the rocky outcrops and sand below would be a good place to haul up a boat. This site is between the Loch of Vastray, a freshwater lochan, and the Rendall-Evie parish boundary at Woodwick's sea inlet. Though the site is called the Ness of Woodwick, after the headland, this is very obviously the Craig of Ritten/Rittin. The 'crag' is an impressive mound with dimensions estimated as 50-60 feet across with an inner diameter about half that - in 1946 at the seaward side to the NE about 20' of outer wall (thought to be the outer wall-face) could be observed. No midden was seen. Twenty years later most of this outer wall was overgrown like the rest of the mound. On a wider view there are two stone-walled enclosures running south of the mound that feel old, though post-broch they are in the right situation to replace outbuildings if this were a broch settlement like Gurness. I wonder if ritten could possibly be an error for pitten to give us a name Pict's Crag ?? Alternatively a ret is an enclosure used during sheep-shearing.
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