ABSTRACT
The early Iron Age in Atlantic Scotland is dominated by field monuments, essentially brochs, duns and island duns, and forts. With around a thousand brochs and duns known in northern and western Scotland, their distribution is plainly indicative of a considerable population, even allowing for the fact that not all would have been in contemporary occupation. As Romankiewicz has made clear, the two walls are functionally independent, the inner carrying the weight and thrust of the roof, the outer bearing the force of wind and weather. In addition to entrances at various levels from the interior into the intra-mural galleries, tall slots are found in the inner face of the inner wall, with their cross-ties resembling a stack of vertical pigeon-holes. The shortage of suitable timber for roofing large round-houses has been much emphasized, particularly in regions like the Western Isles where the absence of natural woodland is a feature of the modern landscape.
