Edin’s Hall Broch Scottish Borders Scotland

Contents of this Video
00:00 Intro
00:15 Journey from Coldstream
01:24 Car Park to Whiteadder Water
06:35 Whiteadder Water to Broch
08:32 Looking round the Broch
09:55 Drone sequence
11:22 A look round the hillfort
13:47 Journey back

Edin’s Hall Broch | Scottish Borders | Scotland

In our previous visit to the Scottish Borders, I visited Torwoodlee Broch which is one of only 3 brochs in southern Scotland. A broch is a high-status iron age dwelling only found in Scotland, characterised by two circular concentric outer walls. They are usually found in North and Northwest Scotland and at Torwoodlee, I was fascinated by its history, set in a hillfort and influenced by the arrival (and departure) of the Romans, but there wasn’t much left of the structure at Torwoodlee. So I decided to check out one of the other southern Scottish brochs and planned a visit to Edin’s Hall Broch which is also in the Scottish Borders, but further east towards the coast. It too is situated in a hillfort, the remains of both the broch and the fort being much more substantial. There are the remains of other dwellings in the hillfort here, a mixture of round and rectangular buildings, presumably occupied by other senior members of the clan / tribe in the protection of the hillfort. It can be argued that the remains of the hillfort are at least as significant at the site as the broch itself.

The broch here is unique to the extent that it is questionable whether it is a broch at all. It was also restored in the 1960s in a way that it would not be restored now, so the fallen stones have now been deposited in between the concentric outer walls partly obscuring the defining feature of the broch. There have been archaeological studies of the broch, though no dating evidence has yet come to light. Even experts who don’t think it should be considered a broch agree that the builders were trying to build a broch. The main theory is that the chief of this hillfort heard tell of the buildings called brochs (maybe from contact with Romans who had been scouting further north, possibly negotiating with northern tribal leaders) and decided he wanted one built. So the builders who had never seen a broch made their best effort to build one from the sketchy descriptions they were given. The northern brochs are shaped with a wide circular base and walls which slope inwards at the bottom like an egg timer in order to provide greater strength to support the roof. Edin’s Hall Broch has a much bigger diameter and no sloping walls, so probably wasn’t very high otherwise it could not have supported the very large roof the floorplan would require. It does, however, have what appear to be bed chambers in the voids between the outer walls and a staircase to a higher level, features of a typical northern broch.

There is a 3 mile hike to the broch from the car park along the Whiteadder Water which is a very pleasant walk, made trickier on the day by the soaring temperatures which had been 33 C the day before and were forecast for at least 28C that day, a forecast which was increasing by the hour. Deb didn’t fancy the hike this time, so I was accompanied by my son Leon, mostly for my safety! So we set off at 7am to try to do the hike in the coolest temperatures of the day, which was effective, but even by 9am on the hike, it was already 28C. So we didn’t spend as long at the hillfort as we may have done as it was becoming too hot up there with no shade.

This video is my first attempt at a talking vlog. I really just tested out the microphones on the day to understand how the tech worked and then to work out how to include the talking and voiceovers in the video, mixing them with the usual relaxing music. I wasn’t sure if I was even going to use any of the talking in the video, but decided to keep some in when editing it. I learnt a lot and think I’d make a better job of this on the next one. I’ve done some other filming in the meantime which did not include microphones so there will probably be a mix of talking and non-talking vlogs in future videos, but I’d be keen to hear your comments on whether you prefer a normal vlog or my usual non-talking style with captions on the channel.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Music: (all from YouTube Audio Library)
Interstellar Mood – Nico Staf
Mas Cafe – Casa Rosa
Cocktail Lounge – Dyalla
Ascension – National Sweetheart

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