Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village on the northeast coast of Mainland Orkney in Scotland overlooking Eynhallow Sound, about 15 miles north-west of Kirkwall [1]. It once housed a substantial community [1]. It was discovered by the Orkney poet and naturalist Robert Rendall in 1929 [1]. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC [1]. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres [1]. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs [1]. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between [1]. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor [1].