Edin's Hall Broch
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Edin's Hall Broch (also Edinshall Broch; Odin's Hall Broch) is a 2nd-century
broch A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...
near
Duns Duns may refer to: * Duns, Scottish Borders, a town in Berwickshire, Scotland ** Duns railway station ** Duns F.C., a football club ** Duns RFC, a rugby football club ** Battle of Duns, an engagement fought in 1372 * Duns Scotus ( 1265/66–1308 ...
in the
Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...
of
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. It is one of very few brochs found in southern Scotland. It is roughly 28 metres in diameter.


Name

In the late 18th century this site was called "Wooden's Hall or Castle" (
Woden Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
the chief god from
Anglo-Saxon mythology Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism, Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, or Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centurie ...
).John R. Baldwin (1985) ''Lothian and the Borders'', page 132. RCAHMS. Its later name change apparently recalls the legend of the three-headed giant
The Red Ettin The Red Ettin or The Red Etin is a fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs. It was included by Andrew Lang in ''The Blue Fairy Book''. Synopsis Two widows lived in a hut, and one had two sons and the other had one—or a single widow had three son ...
known in tales and ballads.


Location

Edin's Hall Broch is one of the most southerly broch survivals, which are more typically associated with Northern Scotland. It is 4 miles north of the town of
Duns Duns may refer to: * Duns, Scottish Borders, a town in Berwickshire, Scotland ** Duns railway station ** Duns F.C., a football club ** Duns RFC, a rugby football club ** Battle of Duns, an engagement fought in 1372 * Duns Scotus ( 1265/66–1308 ...
. It stands on the northeast slope of Cockburn Law just above a fairly steep slope down to the Whiteadder Water. The broch stands in the northwest corner an
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...
which presumably pre-dates the broch. The hillfort consists of a double rampart and ditches, enclosing an oval area some 135 metres by 75 metres. The entrance was on the west side. A large circular structure (roundhouse) in the centre of the fort, close to the broch, may have been the most important building before the broch's construction.


Dating

It is assumed that the hillfort dates to the pre-Roman Iron Age. The date of the broch is uncertain but it has been speculated that it was built between the two main periods of Roman occupation in Scotland: some time in the 2nd century AD. Excavations at
Torwoodlee Broch Torwoodlee Broch is the remains of an iron-age broch located near the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland ...
, also in the Scottish Borders, has shown that it was built and demolished during this period. Within the hillfort is an array of stone footings marking the positions of houses and other structures. Some of the houses overlie the defences – indicating that they are later than hillfort and may be later than the broch as well.


Description

The broch has an external diameter of 28 metres, and an internal diameter of 17 metres. This is unusually large compared with a typical Highland broch and suggests that it may not have been as tall as the northern brochs. The walls of the broch survive to a height of between 1.0 and 1.8 metres. The entrance passage is on the east side and has two guard chambers flanking the doorway. The interior of the broch has three intramural cells which are all approximately dumb-bell shaped. The cell on the south side has the remains of a stone stairway at its north end which presumably rose to the wallhead. The broch lies within a rectangular enclosure measuring about 58 by 54 metres.


Excavations

Edin's Hall was "cleared" by antiquarians in the 19th century. The relics recovered were donated to the
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...
. These included a stone
spindle whorl A spindle whorl is a disc or spherical object fitted onto the spindle to increase and maintain the speed of the spin. Historically, whorls have been made of materials like amber, antler, bone, ceramic, coral, glass, stone, metal (iron, lead, lead ...
, a piece of a jet ring, an
amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In Ma ...
bead, bones, an
oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...
shell, and a fragment of a glass bracelet. Two copper ingots, one of which is now in the National Museum, were apparently found with a metal detector inside the broch in 1976. The ingots were derived from local copper mines and may have been an important source of wealth for the inhabitants. An archaeological survey and sample excavation was conducted in 1996. A few artefacts including coarse pottery and a stone spindle whorl were recovered.


References


External links

* {{Broch Berwickshire Hill forts in Scotland Brochs 2nd century in Scotland Archaeological sites in the Scottish Borders Scheduled monuments in Scotland Historic Scotland properties in the Scottish Borders