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Tony Robinson and the Team journeyed to the north west of Scotland for this programme for what turned out to be one of the toughest Time Team excavations ever.
The TSeam had been invited to Applecross to excavate what was thought to be a broch, a monumental stone tower that was one of the largest Iron-Age structures in Britain. Brochs, found only in Scotland, have a unique design of two massive circular stone walls, so they should be easy to spot. But this is Time Team and nothing is ever that simple.
With 11,000-volt power lines directly overhead, there was no chance of enlisting the help of a mechanical digger to shift the heavy stone rubble. So there was only one thing for it – the human diggers had to remove tons of rock by hand.
And then it started to rain… And it didn't stop. As the weather conditions worsened the archaeology became ever more complex, pushing the Team's skills and patience to the limit.
Watched the programme, browsed the web pages? Now try our quick quiz to see how you get on.
How many sites of brochs have been identified in Scotland?
At least 70
At least 700
At least 7,000
What is the height of the best-preserved brochs?
3 metres
13 metres
30 metres
How wide were the walls of the broch excavated by Time Team at Applecross?
4.6 feet
6.4 metres
4.6 metres
And what was its diameter?
18 metres
10 metres
8 metres
The word 'broch' comes from the Old Norse word for 'fortification'. The same word can be found in placenames such as 'burgh', 'borough' and 'borro', among others. What is the word?
Borg
Zorg
Morg
What do archaeologists think brochs might have developed from?
Wooden towers
Wood roundhouses
Stone roundhouses
Answers here.
Brochs are only found in Scotland. And their design of two concentric walls gives them a unique, easily identifiable footprint. Or at least that's the theory.
The reality is a little more complicated. At Applecross, on the north-west Scottish mainland opposite Skye, Time Team found itself looking for dry-stone walls built on a stony landscape and covered with stony rubble. 'The challenge isn't so much finding a needle in a haystack as finding a needle in a very big pile of similarly sized needles,' quipped Tony Robinson.
There were times when the sense of humour of Time Team's hard-pressed diggers was tested to the limit at Applecross. The presence of an 11,000-volt electricity cable directly above the main excavations ruled out any help from a mechanical digger, so the human diggers had to shift seemingly endless tons of stone by hand.
Did we mention the rain?
And did we mention the rain? It might have been June, but the Scottish skies showed no mercy on Time Team's decreasingly merry band of campers. By the end of the second day, the ceaseless downpour was turning any kind of digging into a very wet, muddy – and hazardous – operation.
It was proving difficult to distinguish which stones were part of the surviving broch structure, which were part of the collapsed broch structure, and which were nothing to do with the broch at all. Even when a clearly defined line of a wall was uncovered, it wasn't easy to work out whether it was the inside or outside of the wall, or whether the wall was the inner or outer one. Working in atrocious conditions, as trenches were extended or new ones put in to try to solve the riddle, all of the diggers put in a heroic effort to get on top of a site that stretched them to the limit.
'Footprint' of the broch
Eventually, thanks to the diggers' industry, Time Team was able to get a clear picture of the 'footprint' of the broch. Eighteen metres in diameter at its outside wall, it consisted of two concentric circular walls, which were 4.6 metres wide at their base. Phil's excavation of what he initially thought might be an entrance in fact uncovered the remains of one of the stone staircases that would have gone up to the higher levels inside the broch.
Dating the structure had not proved easy either. The archaeologists' commonest method – dating based on pottery finds – wasn't as helpful as usual here. Local archaeologist Cathy Dagg, who worked on the programme, explains: 'The problem with pottery here is that for millennia people just used the same local materials, so body shards aren't going to tell you whether it's Iron Age or Pictish – or much, much later because making pot from local clays went on right through the 17th or even 18th century in some places.'
Nonetheless, the Team did eventually manage to uncover some 'diagnostic' pottery, which was dated to between the second century BC and the first century AD. This placed the structure firmly in the Scottish Iron Age: the period when brochs were being built throughout north-western Scotland. Despite the great reluctance of Time Team's various experts to commit themselves until towards the end of the dig, there was no doubt now – this was a classic Iron-Age broch.
Outside the broch
Outside the broch itself, meanwhile, Brigid had found what she described as 'definite evidence of Iron-Age activity, cut into the natural – dark soil with a lot of charcoal, maybe even slag in it'. This turned out to be a hearth or a furnace for metal working. It was dated to about 200 BC by a fragment of cordoned ware pottery found in the deposits.
Also outside the broch, a number of rectangular structures on the same ridge were found to be post-medieval barns. An interesting anomaly that showed up well on the 'geofizz' turned out to be the burnt remains of a Silver Jubilee bonfire in 1977. A tantalising geophysics result on the final day, which seemed to show a possible 'wheel house' (so named because its walls have the outline of a spoked wheel), could not be investigated for lack of fresh diggers.
Challenging
All in all, then, what you might call a 'challenging' dig – and one that gave everyone associated with it a new respect for Scottish stone and weather – and for the Iron-Age people who knew how to handle them both so well.
For this programme Time Team excavated a broch. Once again, we got the inside story from regular Time Team digger, Raksha Dave.
As a Time Team digger you get to excavate archaeological sites from all the different periods. Does the Iron Age grab you, or do you have a period you'd rather be digging?
I am a generalist – always have been and always will be. I don't have a particular period that I'm into; I just enjoy how a site emerges from excavation. It always fascinates me how much a site can change and how much information we can glean. I would say that I'm pretty lucky to have worked on so many different sites. How many people can say they've dug up a broch?
What particular part of this site and its story interested you?
All of it was pretty amazing. First of all, I didn't even know what a broch was. I was intrigued and interested to find out more about brochs and their function. I can't say that I'm now the world's leading broch specialist, but I can now talk about it without sounding stupid.
What was the best thing about the Applecross programme for you?
It has to be the amazing landscape and the death-defying drive up the highest pass in Britain every morning. Oh, and back down again! There are no words to describe how beautiful Applecross is, and I thoroughly recommend anyone to go and visit. The other best thing was working with little Daniel. He is Nick Goldthorpe's son (the campsite owner). I have never seen a six year old so enthusiastic about archaeology. He worked with me for an afternoon and it was a pleasure.
Towers of the North: The brochs of Scotland by Ian Armit (Tempus, 2002) £15.99
Ian Armit is one of the broch experts who worked with Time Team on the Applecross excavation. His book is a comprehensive account of the brochs of north-west Scotland, including how they were built, their purpose, their history and what we know about the society in which they arose. Armit also gives an account of how the study of brochs has developed since 19th-century 'antiquarians' (in some cases, little more than treasure hunters) first began excavating them.
Brochs of Scotland by J N G Ritchie (Shire Archaeology, 1998) £4.99
This volume examines some of the best ancient monuments in Britain – the Iron-Age brochs of north-west Scotland. It sets the building of these fortifications into context and looks at some of the theories that have been proposed for their origins.
In the Shadow of the Brochs: The Iron Age in Scotland edited by Beverley Balin Smith (Tempus, 2002) £25
An authoritative yet readable new account of the Scottish Iron Age.
The Iron Age in Northern Britain: Celts and Romans, natives and invaders by D W Harding (Routledge, 2004) £27.99
The Iron Age in Northern Britain examines the impact of the Roman expansion northwards, and the native response to the Roman occupation on both sides of the frontiers.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Orkney's brochs
www.orkneyjar.com/history/brochs/
Well-written and presented section of the excellent Orkneyjar website, providing general background information on subjects such as how brochs developed as well as detailed information on the brochs of Orkney, where at least 120 had been built or were under construction by 100 BC. ('Orkneyjar' is the Old Norse name for Orkney.)
Rock Stanza
www.rockstanza.info
Remarkable 'free documentation license' website with a detailed and extensive information and photographic database of Iron-Age brochs in Shetland.
Towers of stone – the brochs of Scotland
http://heritage.scotsman.com/places.cfm?id=282072006
Archaeologist Caroline Wickham-Jones provides a good overview of brochs in this article for The Scotsman.
How many sites of brochs have been identified in Scotland?
At least 700
What is the height of the best-preserved brochs?
13 metres
How wide were the walls of the broch excavated by Time Team at Applecross?
4.6 metres
And what was its diameter?
18 metres
The word 'broch' comes from the Old Norse word for 'fortification'. The same word can be found in placenames such as 'burgh', 'borough' and 'borro', among others. What is the word?
Borg
What do archaeologists think brochs might have developed from?
Stone roundhouses