Edin's Hall Broch

Edin's Hall Broch rises within the remains of an earlier Iron Age hillfort on the northeast slope of Cockburn Law, overlooking the valley of the Whiteadder Water. Long before the tower appeared, this hilltop was already fortified. Double ramparts and ditches enclosed an oval area measuring roughly 135 by, creating a defended settlement that likely belonged to the pre-Roman Iron Age. in the turbulent years between two periods of Roman occupation in southern Scotland. Since Edin's Hall stands in the same frontier landscape and shares similar architectural features, it is usually interpreted as belonging to this same phase of broch construction. The broch therefore represents a later chapter…

The broch has an external diameter of 28 metres, and an internal diameter of 17 metres. This is unusually large compared with a typical Highland broch and suggests that it may not have been as tall as the northern brochs. The walls of the broch survive to a height of between 1.0 and 1.8 metres. The entrance passage is on the east side and has two guard chambers flanking the doorway. The interior of the broch has three intramural cells which are all approximately dumb-bell shaped. The cell on the south side has the remains of a stone stairway at its north end which presumably rose to the wallhead. The broch lies within a rectangular enclosure measuring about 58 by 54 metres.