broch

American  

[brokh, bruhkh] / brɒx, brʌx /

Obsolete, brough

noun

1. 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.

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broch British  

/ brɒk, brɒx /

noun

1. (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

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Etymology

Origin of broch

First recorded in 1645–55; Scots, metathetic variant of burgh

Example Sentences

The three sites in Shetland, which preserve examples of broch architecture, were nominated together under the banner of the Crucible of Iron Age Scotland.

From BBC • Mar. 22, 2011

Oldest part of the grim little hamlet was a "broch tower": a crude donjon keep.

From Time Magazine Archive

On the summit of the rock rises a keep very much resembling a Pictish broch.

From Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe by Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)

A superstition which has certainly endured to the nineteenth century may obviously have existed among the Picts, or whoever they were, of the crannog and broch period on Clyde. 

From The Clyde Mystery a Study in Forgeries and Folklore by Lang, Andrew

"I cannot pay the fine," he said; "for not in all my lands and ships do I possess such wealth nor know I any man who would be my broch, or bail."

From The Thirsty Sword by Leighton, Robert