Entrance guard cells: why?

The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of Joy or anyone else in the Broch-baggers group

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The Caithness Broch Project recently posted this question:

"Ground cells
 On the ground floor of some brochs we find little rooms built into the thick walls, dubbed ground cells they are found in various arrangements and sizes. Often kidney shaped with a corbelled ceiling and neat little niches built in the walls.
No one's really sure what they were used for, theories abound from grain store to dog kennel, prison cell to ice house???
Click through the photos and tell us what you think they may be used for."

That started me thinking about so-called 'guard cells' off the entrance passage of some brochs.   It occurred to me that if there was an attack, and everyone was dashing pell-mell into the broch, who bars the door? Seems to me that it could be difficult - narrow passage, the final stragglers coming in - the old, maybe the wounded. The enemy could be hard on their heels. Would make sense for the strongest / fittest to be able to step aside and wait till everyone else was in, then slam the door shut behind them. Easier, too, to cut down the vanguard of the attackers from the side if they got that far. The door would presumably be heavy and had to be halfway along the passage so it could be solidly wedged.

Canmore site-plan of Dun Fiadhair

That leads on to another question (as is the way with brochs!): there is a guard-cell in the entrance at Dun Fiadhair but not (I think) at Dun Colbost, Dun Boreraig, Dun Osdale, Dùn Beag or Dun Sleadale.  Why not?  Were they built earlier, before it was realised that a side-cell would be useful in the scenario above?

If we go back to the question of why were brochs built then (nailing my colours to the mast) I think 'it all depends'.

Dun Boreraig, looking across to the Coral Beaches

The ones we have already visited round Loch Dunvegan are within sight of each other - they would work very well as watchtowers, could signal to each that invaders were approaching, and the sight of them might intimidate sea-raiders and encourage them to look for an easier target. The Martello towers as you sail into Hoy on Orkney have that effect.  So there may not have been so many people dashing for safety, and they would have had plenty of warning from the watchers on the ramparts (which, again, brings in the question of height - a full-height broch like Dun Telve and Dun Troddan at Glenelg would hardly lend itself to wall-top access ... but one at half-height might?)  It may be there would be ample time to bar the door before the attackers reached the entrance.

the entrance at Dun Sleadale

Dun Sleadale near Talisker Beach is at a completely different sort of location - it's tucked away out of sight on high pasture.  It could easily have been built on another knoll or the cliff-top near the obvious landing-place if it was intended to be used in the same way as the Loch Dunvegan ones might have been.  I also don't think it was simply an over-the-top roundhouse for everyday living or to impress the neighbours - the entrance has been located on the brink of a steep scarp - hard to scramble up, and even harder to drive animals.  No way, in my opinion, that a sensible husbandman would locate it just there for everyday use - he could have set it back from the edge or faced the entrance onto the flat top of the knoll.  However, the likelihood of an unexpected attack is slim - even if no watch was kept over the actual beach-head, it would take raiders at least ten minutes to reach the broch from their first sight over the edge of the plateau - and that's assuming said raiders actually turned aside from the obvious route through the valley, up the narrow gorge and finding a footing to the hidden high land.   So, I think, the folk living perhaps in huts around the knoll would have enough time to get inside and bar the door.

What does everyone else think?

Ground cells On the ground floor of some brochs we find little rooms built into the thick walls, dubbed ground cells...
Posted by Caithness Broch Project on Thursday, 24 March 2016