Torwoodlee Broch

When out for a wander we sometimes happen upon a fabulous hillfort, but in Scotland you may be treated to a broch. And while jollying near Galashiels we found the smashing Torwoodlee Broch.

What Is A Broch?

A hillfort is usually a big enclosed settlement on a hilltop with ramparts or ditches around it where a whole community usually lives. But a broch is a very different beast. It's a tower-like roundhouse built in the Iron Age, made of double drystone walls with a hollow gallery inside. They're circular and often quite tall when first built, maybe 10 metres or more. Most are found in the north and west of Scotland. Here is a pic we made to show you what they would have looked like/

Now you might be thinking that a broch was like a fortified tower, built for defence because of their thick double walls narrow entrances and commanding views. You'd certainly have a job attacking one and could defo serve as a refuge in times of trouble.

But excavations also suggest brochs were prestige dwellings or status symbols for powerful families. A bit like when the rich built a folly. Many were placed where they could be seen by their jealous neighbours rather than hidden, hinting at display and influence (or plain showing off) as much as defence.

Looking at the Torwoodlee Broch photos, taken from the Fabulous North hot air balloon, you may spy there are additional furrows around it. This is because Torwoodlee Broch sits within an older hillfort with its oval ramparts pressed into the shoulder of a ridge above the Gala Valley. The broch itself sits at the southwest edge of that fort.

You can see from our aerial shots that there are two concentric circles which represent the outer and inner walls. That's a canny thick structure so would have been very strong and defensive and also kept the cold out!

There would be staircases and passages with the gaps between the walls filled with rubble.

In 1891 a chap called James Curle did a bit of excavating and confirmed that the Torwoodlee Broch was built not long after the Romans pulled back around 100AD. He also found some Roman pottery glass and even a 1st century coin.

Then Stuart Piggott came along in 1950 and uncovered even more Roman fragments underneath the walls reinforcing the idea that the broch rose when Roman oversight waned and fell perhaps in response to renewed Roman pressure around 140AD. Not a long life for a broch.

As with hillforts and brochs, unless you have stilts or a hot air balloon, then you may not get the full picture from the ground level.

As a broch is concise, you can make out the doorway and the inner and outer wall circles.

Of course not much of the stone walls remain now, probably carried off by the locals to build field dykes, buildings and walls leaving just the foundations on display.

Its entrance faces out towards the fabulous Eildon Hills telling you just where the gaze of its inhabitants was pulled.

If you fancy a wander to the broch then park in the bay next to the Torwoodlee Tower, then following the permissive path through the farm where you will be able to see the hill where the broch sits.

Then just keep to the track skirting the hill and then through a few gates.

You will be able to see the hill where the broch sits, but if you need it, here's a little map for you.

It's just under 1.5km to the broch with 56m of climbing.

Follow On OS Maps

The broch lives on the Torwoodlee estate and is a working farm so please be respectful and take care if you visit the broch. We reached out to the estate and got a lovely response from James Pringle, the Laird of Torwoodlee who kindly gave us permission to take aerial footage and confirmed the best route.