broch
nounUK /ˈbɹɒx/ · US /ˈbɹɑx/
Etymology From Scots broch, from Old Norse borg, from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Doublet of borough and burgh.
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Archaeology, History, Human sciences, Sciences A type of Iron Age stone tower with hollow double-layered walls found on Orkney, Shetland, in the Hebrides and parts of the Scottish mainland.
- Finella's carles builded the Kaimes, a long line of battlements under the hills, midway a tower that was older still, a broch from the days of the Pictish men […].1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 268:
- The last man slid the bolt in the single low narrow door. The broch was impregnable then.1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe, Polygon, published 2019, page 20:
1 more example
- Ian's eyes rolled slowly up, as though following the rough stones of the broch upwards. 'That tower rises sixty feet from the ground,' he told me, 'and it's thirty feet in diameter, wi' three floors.'1991, Diana Gabaldon, chapter 29, in Outlander, London: Random House: