Clickimin is another of fantastic broch located in the Shetlands, superbly constructed and in a fantastic setting to visit.
Visiting Clickimin Broch
Clickimin Broch is very easy to visit from Lerwick as it just on the edge of town. Access is 24 hour and you can just park up nearby. It is a bit marshy in the area (it is after all on the edge of a loch) so be sensible.
My Experience
A fantastic setting again for this broch, it’s almost like they were chosen with tourism in mind! Depending on the direction you’re facing though, one way has a row of houses on the edge of Lerwick, the other is open moorland. There are no facilities here at all so it’s just a case of wander down the path, read the info board and then look around the broch. They really are fantastic structures, well designed and most have looked awesome in their time.
Clickimin Broch Photo Gallery
History
The promontory at Clickimin shows evidence of having been occupied from at least the Bronze Age, about 1000 BC. Its use continued to about AD 500. Its development sequence is unclear and open to interpretation, but the main elements are generally believed to be:
- a late Bronze Age house, outbuilding and enclosure
- an early Iron Age enclosed site, consisting of a stout wall with a shallow ditch across the isthmus connecting the islet to the mainland
- a middle Iron Age broch, with later alterations, and a blockhouse with a central passage and cells erected within the ring-fort
- a later Iron Age wheelhouse-type building, inserted within the broch tower, and a stone causeway leading to the site.
It is possible that some of the structures around the broch tower are of even later date; it is not uncommon to find Pictish settlement on such sites.
Why was Clickimin built?
Clickimin Broch has been excavated several times, but several questions remain. We don’t know who built the broch, and whether it was designed as a defensive stronghold, or as a marker of its builder’s status. In reality, it may have fulfilled a combination of both functions.
We also don’t know the original form of the broch as it once stood – how many floors it had, what the roof was like or how the space was used. However, more complete examples of brochs such as Dun Carloway and Mousa can provide important clues.
References
The Historic Scotland site covers visitor information. The history above is copied from those pages.