BuildingMousa Broch

[weetoon, 14.01.2007] To Hamish Haswell-Smith, this Broch is the "world's finest, best preserved", as well as "the most complete". It can be seen "clearly" from the Mainland as it stands "some 13 metres tall", despite having "lost its upper courses". To him this is a "very fine example" of the "craft" of the Iron Age builders, with its walls "gracefully curved inwards" and its stones "meticulously laid dry" resulting in a "smooth exterior". What makes the craftsmanship all the more "remarkable" is the fact that timber was "exceptionally scarce", which means the builder could only rely on his "eye" to figure out the line of the building. This was done with such "skill and accuracy" that the building was about 1000 years old "at the time of the Vikings" and is now "1000 older still". There is a "mystery" as to the real reason for building these Brochs, but strangest of all, this one looks as though the builder has just "gone home for the night", having "just laid the last stone". Access is by boat "by private arrangement" in summer.

(From p342, Scottish Islands by Hamish Haswell-Smith published in 1996 by Canongate Books Ltd. ISBN: 0 86241 579 9)