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Upper Sour Broch is an Iron Age broch situated in Caithness, northern Scotland, standing 315 metres west of Upper Sour. Built upon bedrock of Middle Old Red Sandstone conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone deposited during the Middle Devonian period, the monument occupies ground typical of the rolling moorland landscape that characterises this region.
Brochs are distinctive circular stone towers unique to Iron Age Scotland, generally dating to between the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. Constructed from drystone masonry, they featured hollow-walled structures with internal galleries and served multiple purposes including defence, storage and communal gathering. The Upper Sour example represents the distribution of these monuments across the far north of Scotland, where they remain among the most impressive surviving prehistoric structures.
The broch is protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM2218, recognising its significance as a nationally important archaeological monument. The survival of these Iron Age towers across the Caithness landscape provides valuable evidence of prehistoric settlement patterns and engineering techniques in northern Scotland, whilst their prominence demonstrates the technological sophistication and social organisation of Iron Age communities in this region.
Upper Sour,broch 315m W of is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM2218. View the official record →
Upper Sour Broch is an Iron Age broch situated in Caithness, northern Scotland, standing 315 metres west of Upper Sour. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM2218.
Upper Sour,broch 315m W of dates from the iron age period, and is classified as a broch. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Upper Sour,broch 315m W of is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM2218.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Achies, broch 800m NE of (5.8 km), Achanarras,cairn 800m NW of (6 km), Achies,broch 180m E of (6.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Upper Sour,broch 315m W of's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Upper Sour,broch 315m W of stands on Middle Old Red Sandstone (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone.