Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Harold's expedition, however, failed, and he went back to Caithness to raise a force to kill a man called Erlend the Young who had seized his mother Margret and taken her by force to Shetland, where he fortified Mousa Broch and held her prisoner there.
The old Yarl of Broch was always restless during a storm, and never cared to sit in the house when the elements were at war, "for there is sorrow on the sea," he would say at such times; "and I cannot rest when I think some poor souls are fighting for life on the water."
What concerns dwellers in the extreme north is that although the Romans went into Perthshire and may have temporarily penetrated even into Moray, they certainly never occupied any part of Sutherland or Caithness, though their tablets of brass, probably as part of the currency used in trade, have been found in a Sutherland Pictish tower or broch, a fact which goes far to prove that the brochs, with which we shall deal later on, existed in Roman times.
But also he knew that neither in cattle nor in other movable wealth was it in his power to pay the value of a thousand head of cattle in so short a time. So he up and told this to Sir Oscar Redmain. "I cannot pay the fine," he said; "for not in all my lands and ships do I possess such wealth nor know I any man who would be my broch, or bail."
Above the ground floor the broch consisted of two concentric walls about three feet apart, the whole rising to a height in the larger towers of 45 feet or more, with slabs of stone laid horizontally across the gap between and within the two walls, at intervals of, say, five or six feet up to the top, and thus forming a series of galleries inside the concentric walls, in which large numbers of human beings could be temporarily sheltered and supplies in great quantities could be stored for a siege.
"Then are you going farther than to Broch?" she asked; and, under pledge of secrecy, the girl was told the whole scheme, which delighted her. "Oh, what a fine time he will have! It is so nice to be a boy!" Signy said to herself, as she slowly turned from the shore when the Osprey took wing.
So far the "broch," or hill fort, was not unlike other hill forts and brochs, of which there are hundreds in Scotland. But many of the relics alleged to have been found in the soil of Dunbuie were unfamiliar in character in these islands. There was not a shard of pottery, there was not a trace of metal, but absence of such things is no proof that they were unknown to the inhabitants of the fort.
But the Yarl had been watching Tom, as he lay among coats spread on grass in the bottom of the boat, and the kind old man's face had grown more sad and serious every moment. "I think we must not make for Burra Wick after all," he said. "Much as I'd like to have you at Broch, I believe we ought to take another course. This lad should be in his father's hands with as little delay as possible.
These galleries were approached from within the broch by a staircase which rose from the court and passed round between the two concentric walls above the ground floor, till it reached their highest point, and probably ended immediately above the only entrance, the outside of which was thus peculiarly exposed to missiles from the end of the staircase at the top of the broch.
"Mither," said Gloy, "wad say that the sea was sending its warning tae wiz." "We will certainly pay heed to that warning," answered Yaspard, "as soon as we have had breakfast. Let's look alive, boys, and get our fire up as fast as we can, for there's going to be a gale before night, and we should be at Broch then."
Word Of The Day