Scheduled Monument
The Tulloch (Usshilly), broch and field system WNW of Forse HouseSM599
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 13/05/1939
- Last Date Amended
- 30/01/2003
- Supplementary Information Updated
- 08/03/2019
- Type
- Prehistoric domestic and defensive: broch, Secular: field system
- Local Authority
- Highland
- Planning Authority
- Highland
- Parish
- Latheron
- NGR
- ND 20757 35527
- Coordinates
- 320757, 935527
Description
The monument comprises the remains of a broch of Iron Age date and an extensive area of cultivation remains of post-medieval date. The broch itself was scheduled in 1939 (under the name Usshilly Tulloch, which is still remembered locally), but this re-scheduling extends the protected area to take in a large area around the broch.
The broch survives as a low mound of stone, set on the outside edge of a natural terrace on the hillside. It is about 20m across and stands over 2m high. On the NW side some continuous walling of the outer face is visible, but elsewhere single earthfast stones indicate the perimeter. The interior is slightly hollowed. At the N and S, the broch mound appears to have been extended by more recent walling, and it is likely that the mound has been quarried to provide material for the various drystone walls in the area. Around the broch is an extensive area of particularly well-preserved rig-and-furrow cultivation traces, apparently showing at least two phases of rig creation. The rigs are elongated and almost parallel, curving gently, as is typical of plough rig (as opposed to spade-dug) rig, and run obliquely downslope. The rigs display lynchets (accumulations of soil at their lower side) in places, and are bounded on the W by a tumbled drystone wall (which is probably earlier than the most recent cultivation episode), and on the E by a boggy area, within which stands a probable Bronze Age burnt mound.
The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, and measures a maximum of 450m N-S by 275m E-W. It extends to just beyond the edge of the obvious cultivation remains, to include the traces of walling which partially bound them and a small area of the boggy ground to the E. The area is marked in red on the accompanying map. Excluded from scheduling is the water supply pipe which runs underground through the NE part of the area, and a strip of land 1m wide above it to allow for maintenance.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
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