Double wall system
Introduction
Dun Carloway probably, at some point in the century BC, and radiocarbon dating of the remains found in the broch show that it was occupied until around 1300. At the base the broch is between 14 and 15 meters in diameter and the walls are around 3 meters thick. It has a circular plan and parallel walls that leave a practicable gap between them and was built without mortar.[1] It probably had the necessary wooden floor, partitions and thatched roof. to make it habitable, but the only remaining evidence of this is the holes for the posts and beams. Along with the roof, the narrow passage presumably secured by a wooden door, were the most vulnerable points of the construction, especially to fire.
The only opening to the outside, the entrance door, has dimensions less than 107 centimeters high by 91 centimeters wide, with the lintel being the largest stone in the entire construction.[1].
The double wall is made up of the interior wall, vertical, and the exterior wall with an inclination that makes the lower corridors easily practicable but not the upper ones. In the construction there were, some are preserved, openings or doors that gave way from the interior to these corridors, which are connected between floors by means of stairs. Both the hallways and the stairs are made with stone slabs that rest on both walls. On the ground floor between both walls there are four rooms, in one of which ceramic remains have been found, known as room A. Another room, D, opens to the entrance hallway to the broch, so it is assumed that it houses the person who kept it.[2].
On the interior walls you can still see the increase made to about 2.1 meters to support the floor that would make up the ceiling of the ground floor and floor of the upper floor.[3].
Notes and references
Literature
• - This work contains a full translation derived from "Dun Carloway" from English Wikipedia, specifically this version, published by its editors under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Dun Carloway.
• - Photos of the broch Dun Carloway on the Ancient Scotland website (in English). Accessed October 8, 2012.
• - Broch Dun Carloway in the Megalithic Portal (in English). Accessed October 8, 2012.
• - Panoramas of the broch Carloway (in English) (QuickTime required). Accessed October 8, 2012.
References
- [1] ↑ a b Ponting y Ponting, 1980, p. 2.
- [2] ↑ Ponting y Ponting, 1980, pp. 2-3.
- [3] ↑ Ponting y Ponting, 1980, p. 3.