244 Kmtail and Glenelg, with Notices of the Brochs. [Sess. 



intervening spur of the mountain. A few feet more masonry 

 would, however, make all the difference, and enable one to 

 attain a point of vantage sufficient to overlook the obstructing 

 ridge. It must not be inferred from this that it was a neces- 

 sary part of the economy of these erections to be always in 

 sight of each other, as such a theory will not stand the test 

 of examination ; but, at the same time, it is probable that 

 where so many occurred in one short space, and all seemingly 

 for defensive purposes, the additional safeguard of rapid inter- 

 change of communication would not be neglected by the 

 builders. 



In penning the foregoing remarks, I have gone upon the 

 assumption that most of you have either seen or read accounts 

 of those earliest known stone buildings in Scotland ; but 

 should this not be the case, permit me in conclusion, and very 

 briefly, to give a cursory sketch of what we might suppose a 

 perfect broch to be. Composed entirely of unhewn stone, 

 with no lime or cement, in outward appearance it is circular, 

 and slopes gradually upwards like the base of a lighthouse, or 

 a kiln in a glass-work, this peculiar form being called by old 

 writers a "truncated cone." There is no outward opening 

 save a narrow doorway about three feet wide and five or six 

 feet high, and this passage leads through the waU into the inner 

 area. Passing a few feet into this entrance, we reach a point 

 where are upright slabs jutting out, and here the door was 

 placed, supposed to have been also of stone, and flanked by a 

 cavity left in the thickness of the wall, known as the guard- 

 chamber. Now consider the wisdom of this arrangement. Had 

 the door been placed on the outside periphery, it could have 

 been readily stormed by a number of men clustering round ; but 

 being four or five feet inside the narrow passage, only one man, 

 or at most two, could attack it at a time, so that a determined 

 handful behind could keep an army at bay. For several feet 

 above the ground the wall is solid, except at intervals in the 

 circle where there are cavities left that appear to have been 

 rooms, on a small and very rough scale. The arch, as already 

 remarked, being evidently unknown at that period, the stones 

 overlap each other, and gradually narrow the space at the top, 

 so as to admit of huge flat slabs being laid across, to serve the 

 triple purpose of binding the walls together, and of forming 



