broch

[Scot. brokh, bruhkh]

noun

a circular stone tower built around the beginning of the Christian era, having an inner and an outer wall, found on the Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, the Hebrides, and the mainland of Scotland.

Nearby words

Origin of broch

1645–55; Scots, metathetic variant of burgh

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for broch

So far the “broch,” or hill fort, was not unlike other hill forts and brochs, of which there are hundreds in Scotland.
The Clyde Mystery|Andrew Lang
This urban agglomeration, Dr. Broch shows, has been 'due principally to causes which have operated in the rest of Europe.
The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886|Various
The rest of that day was spent at Broch—delightfully spent, we know, since the Yarl was host.
Viking Boys|Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby
Probably the many hut circles which surround this Broch are of later date and were formed from its ruins.
British Castles|Charles H. Ashdown

It occurs within the pentacle symbol engraved on a pebble from the Broch of Burrian, Orkney.
Archaic England|Harold Bayley

British Dictionary definitions for broch

broch

noun

(in Scotland) a circular dry-stone tower large enough to serve as a fortified home; they date from the Iron Age and are found esp in the north and the islands

Word Origin for broch

C17: from Old Norse borg; related to Old English burh settlement, burgh

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for broch

broch

prehistoric stone tower of the Scottish Highland and isles, 1650s, from Scottish broch, from Old Norse borg "castle," cognate with Old English burh (see borough).