On a small promontory jutting into the Loch of Clickimin, three-quarters of a mile south-west of Lerwick on the road to Sumburgh, stands one of the best-preserved broch (a tall circular tower of unmortared stone, found only in Scotland) sites in Shetland. The broch was originally built on an island in the loch and reached by a stone causeway; it sits within a walled enclosure that includes a feature rare among brochs, a substantial "forework" or "blockhouse" positioned between the entrance in the enclosure wall and the broch tower itself. The tower has an external diameter of around 20 metres and an internal diameter of around 9 metres, with access from the west through an entrance passage that may once have had a guard cell, now blocked, just inside the door jamb.
On a small promontory jutting into the Loch of Clickimin, three-quarters of a mile south-west of Lerwick on the road to Sumburgh, stands one of the best-preserved broch sites in Shetland. The broch was originally built on an island in the loch and reached by a stone causeway; it sits within a walled enclosure that includes a feature rare among brochs, a substantial “forework” or “blockhouse” positioned between the entrance in the enclosure wall and the broch tower itself. The tower has an external diameter of around 20 metres and an internal diameter of around 9 metres, with access from the west through an entrance passage that may once have had a guard cell, now blocked, just inside the door jamb.
What makes Clickimin unusual is not just its scale but the layered sequence of occupation its excavator, J. R. C. Hamilton, proposed after digging the site in the 1950s: a Late Bronze Age farmstead giving way in turn to an Iron Age farmhouse, a stone-walled fort with its own blockhouse and ringwork, the broch tower, and finally a wheelhouse settlement built into the tower’s ruins. Later archaeologists have questioned parts of that sequence, particularly whether the ring wall, blockhouse and broch were really built centuries apart or went up together, but the physical evidence for a long, repeatedly rebuilt settlement on the promontory is not in doubt. The site is maintained today for public access, its walls partly restored after a period of vandalism and dilapidation in the early twentieth century.
What follows is drawn from published sources, with each claim labelled by how firmly it is established.
History
The broch was first excavated and cleared in 1861–2, exposing the tower and its surrounding walls to view for the first time in the modern era. The site subsequently suffered major vandalism and fell into disrepair, and between 1908 and 1910 the Office of Works carried out a programme of rebuilding to consolidate and partly reconstruct the standing remains.
A far more extensive excavation followed between 1953 and 1957, directed by the archaeologist J. R. C. Hamilton on behalf of the Ministry of Works. From this work Hamilton proposed a complex, multi-period chronology for the site. He argued that the earliest occupation was a small Late Bronze Age farmstead of the 7th or 6th century BC (c. 700–600 BCE), which was superseded around the 5th century BC by a larger circular Iron Age farmhouse.
According to Hamilton's sequence, a stone-walled fort consisting of the blockhouse and ringwork was then constructed in the 4th or early 3rd century BC, before this in turn was superseded by the broch tower itself in around the 1st century AD. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, he proposed, a large wheelhouse was built within the reduced tower, with minor outhouses, storage pits and cattle stalls dug into the accumulated debris inside the older defences.
In more recent years Hamilton's schema has been challenged by archaeologists and others, who now usually treat the ring wall, blockhouse and broch as broadly contemporary rather than as successive, centuries-apart building phases. This reassessment is set out by B. Smith in 'How not to reconstruct the Iron Age in Shetland: modern interpretations of Clickimin broch', published in Northern Studies, volume 47, in 2015.
People
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John R. C. Hamilton
Directed the 1953–1957 excavation on behalf of the Ministry of Works and proposed the site's original multi-period chronology, later published as the monograph Excavations at Clickimin, Shetland (1968).
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B. Smith
Author of the 2015 Northern Studies article 'How not to reconstruct the Iron Age in Shetland: modern interpretations of Clickimin broch', which challenged Hamilton's chronology.
Connections
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Photo: Rob Farrow / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 Another Shetland broch, representing the same Iron Age tower tradition as Clickimin.
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Photo: Tom Pennington / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 A later fortified residence in Shetland, contrasting with Clickimin’s prehistoric broch settlement.
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Photo: See above. / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 A Pictish carved stone from Shetland, representing a later phase of monument-making in the islands.
Discovery & excavation
The defining excavation at Clickimin ran from 1953 to 1957 under J. R. C. Hamilton, working on behalf of the Ministry of Works. Before this campaign the monument appeared mainly as a grassy mound rising from the small island in the loch, with only sections of stone wall visible at the surface; Hamilton's work gradually exposed the broch tower along with its surrounding defences and the remains of earlier and later buildings. The results were published in his 1968 monograph, Excavations at Clickimin, Shetland. Beneath and around the broch tower, excavators found traces of earlier roundhouses and occupation layers, showing that people had lived on the promontory long before the tower was built, and that later inhabitants continued to occupy the site after the broch began to fall into ruin, building a wheelhouse and other domestic structures within its partly collapsed walls. The excavation also clarified the defensive layout: a substantial stone ring wall protected the settlement together with an entrance blockhouse controlling access across the narrow approach, with further earthworks including a ditch and rampart outside. Finds from the occupation deposits included stone lamps, whetstones, bone and whalebone objects, a die, a small number of bronze objects, and two fragments of Roman glass, alongside quantities of coarse, hand-made Iron Age pottery used for cooking, storage and food preparation. Saddle querns and rubbing stones pointed to grain being ground into flour on site, while spindle whorls showed that wool was spun into thread there. Animal bone from cattle, sheep and pigs indicated a livestock-based economy, supplemented by red deer, fish and shellfish, and further bone and antler tools, pins and worked fragments were recovered. No formal burials were identified. Hamilton's excavations reshaped scholarly understanding of Shetland brochs, showing Clickimin to be not a single isolated defensive tower but the centre of a larger community that lived, worked and rebuilt its homes there over many generations.
What to look for
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The forework or blockhouse
A free-standing drystone gateway set just within the entrance to the fort, positioned between the outer enclosure and the broch tower — a feature unusual among broch sites generally.
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The western entrance passage
The main access into the broch, on its western side, where a guard cell — now blocked up — may once have stood just inside the door jamb.
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The two ground-level cells
Chambers built into the thickness of the broch's walls at ground level, part of the tower's original internal arrangement.
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The upper-level entrances
Two further entrances above ground level: a north entrance leading both into the interior and to a staircase, and a second entrance leading into an intramural gallery within the wall thickness.
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Wheelhouse remains within the tower
Traces of a later wheelhouse and associated outhouses, storage pits and cattle stalls built into the debris inside the broch after the tower itself fell into partial ruin.
Plan your visit
- Location
- 60.1493°N · 1.1655°W
- Access
- Open access
- Terrain
- Moderate walking
- Time needed
- About 90 minutes
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Questions people ask
- How big is the Broch of Clickimin?
- The broch has an external diameter of around 20 metres and an internal diameter of around 9 metres, making it one of the larger and best-preserved broch towers in Shetland.
- What is the blockhouse at Clickimin and why is it unusual?
- The blockhouse, or forework, is a free-standing drystone gateway set just within the entrance to the walled fort surrounding the broch, positioned between the outer enclosure and the tower itself. This kind of forework between an enclosure entrance and the broch is unusual among broch sites.
- Who excavated Clickimin and when?
- The broch was first excavated and cleared in 1861–2, then rebuilt in part by the Office of Works in 1908–10 after vandalism and dilapidation. The major excavation was carried out between 1953 and 1957 by J. R. C. Hamilton on behalf of the Ministry of Works, with his findings published in the 1968 monograph Excavations at Clickimin, Shetland.
- What did archaeologists find at Clickimin?
- Excavation recovered stone lamps, whetstones, bone and whalebone objects, a die, a few bronze objects and two fragments of Roman glass, along with coarse hand-made Iron Age pottery, saddle querns and rubbing stones for grinding grain, spindle whorls for spinning wool, and animal bone from cattle, sheep, pigs, red deer and fish, plus shellfish remains. No formal burials were identified.
- Is Hamilton's chronology of the site still accepted?
- Not entirely. Hamilton proposed that the ring wall, blockhouse and broch were built in distinct, successive phases, but more recent archaeological opinion, set out by B. Smith in a 2015 Northern Studies article, now usually treats the ring wall, blockhouse and broch as broadly contemporary rather than centuries apart.
Sources
- Broch of Clickimin, Wikipedia
- Broch of Clickimin, Wikidata (Q923324)
- Historic Environment Scotland, "Clickimin Broch, broch and settlement (SM90077)"
- Hamilton, J. R. C., Excavations at Clickimin, Shetland (1968)
- Smith, B., 'How not to reconstruct the Iron Age in Shetland: modern interpretations of Clickimin broch', Northern Studies, 47 (2015)
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