BROCHS, brows, class of edifices peculiar to Scotland, particularly in the northern coun ties, including Orkney, Shetland and the West ern Isles, more than 300 in all being known. A broth is a hollow circular tower of dry-built masonry, rarely more than 70 or less than 40 feet in total diameter, occasionally at least 50 feet high, and enclosing a circular court or area from 25 to 45 feet in diameter. The wall, which may be from 9 to 20 feet thick, is carried up solid for about 10 feet, except where pierced by the narrow passage giving entrance to the interior court, or where chambers are hollowed within its thickness and opening off the court. Above this height there are hori zontal galleries in the wall, each about six feet high and three feet wide, running com pletely round the tower, except where crossed by the stair giving access to them, and having windows placed above each other, and all look ing into the central area. The only external opening is a doorway about five or six feet high, and rarely more than three feet wide. The passage varies from 9 to 18 feet in length, and about four feet from its outer en trance is the door. Many of the broths are found in naturally strong positions, such as a precipitous eminence, or a promontory pro jecting into a loch, and further defenses are afforded by ditches and embankments, earthen ramparts and dry stone walls. Hence it is clear that they were intended to serve as places of shelter and defense, for which purpose they are admirably contrived, as they form a series of strongholds that could be reduced only by a regular siege, the inmates being safe against missiles and even against fire, from the height and strength of the walls. Provided with a
sufficiency of food, and obtaining water from a well inside the enclosure, the people thus shel tered could hold out for an indefinite time. The relics found in. the broths, like the struc tures themselves, are Celtic in character, and belong to post-Roman times. The Brochs were probably built as places of refuge from the Scandinavian vikings that for centuries were a scourge to many of the European coasts, but little or nothing of their history is known. The relics include swords, spears, knives, axes and chisels of iron, with rings, bracelets, pins and other articles of bronze or of brass. Numer ous articles made of bone and horn are also found, with stone implements, as querns, mor tars, pestles, bowls and cups, lamps, etc. Pot tery of various kinds is also found. Spinning and weaving were evidently practised by the broch-builders. Agriculture, hunting and fish ing furnished subsistence; and animal food was furnished by the stag, roe, reindeer, ox, sheep, goat and pig, as well as by the whale, porpoise, cod, haddock and other denizens of the sea.