Qualla: Broch of Mousa

Broch of Mousa: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Farrow, CC BY-SA 2.0. It stands 13.3 metres tall on a low promontory overlooking Mousa Sound, and it has been standing there for roughly two thousand years. The Broch of Mousa, on the small island of Mousa off Shetland's east coast, is the tallest broch still in existence and one of the best-preserved prehistoric buildings in Europe. More than 500 brochs were built across Scotland during the Iron Age. This is the one that refused to fall down.

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Image: Rob Farrow | CC BY-SA 2.0

Broch of Mousa: Built to Last

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Langus (talk) (Uploads), Public domain. What saved Mousa Broch is paradoxically what made it unusual among brochs: it is small and massively constructed. The overall diameter is one of the smallest of any broch, but the wall base is one of the thickest, and the interior is one of the most compact. This massive ratio of...

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Image: Langus (talk) (Uploads) | Public domain

Broch of Mousa: A Viking Siege

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Farrow, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Orkneyinga Saga, the medieval Norse chronicle of the Earls of Orkney, records that in 1153 Earl Harald Maddadsson laid siege to the Broch of Mousa after his mother was abducted and held inside the tower. The account implies that even in the 12th century -- more than a thousan...

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Image: Rob Farrow | CC BY-SA 2.0

Broch of Mousa: Petrels in the Walls

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Helspence, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today the broch shares its home with roughly 6,800 breeding pairs of European storm petrels -- about 8 percent of the British population and approximately 2.6 percent of the world population. Some of these tiny seabirds nest in burrows within the broch walls themselves, occupying...

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Image: Helspence | CC BY-SA 4.0