Iron Age Brochs Spotter’s Field Guide

A field guide to Scotland’s Iron Age brochs for adult history fans and travellers: how to read a broch, three kinds of broch site, the way in, how brochs were built and reused and who lived in them, then 12 places from Mousa, Jarlshof and Gurness to Dun Carloway, the Glenelg brochs and Edin’s Hall, a timeline and the open questions.

What’s inside:

- How to use the guide (no travel advice is given)

- Recognise it: a broch and three kinds of broch site (our own drawings)

- The way in: a narrow passage and a guard cell

- Before, during and after: how brochs were built and reused

- Who lived in brochs?

- 12 places, from Mousa, Jarlshof and Gurness to Dun Carloway, the Glenelg brochs and Edin’s Hall, each with facts from Historic Environment Scotland and notes space

- Timeline

- Open questions: questions without one answer

- Checklist of the 12 places

- Credits, licence and sources

Pages: 18 (including cover and credits). Sizes: A4 (210 × 297 mm) and US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), both PDFs included in one zip.

Printing: Print at 100% / actual size on A4 or US Letter. Inside pages use light backgrounds and print well in black and white; covers are dark, so start from page 2 to save ink.

Every fact is checked against named source pages from Historic Environment Scotland, UNESCO and Shetland Amenity Trust (checked 3 Nov 2026), and the sources are listed on the pack’s credits page. Where the evidence gives no single answer, what each source says is shown with its source.

There are no photos in this pack: all drawings, puzzles and layouts are REALLYBYTE’s own work. Drawings are simplified impressions: not photographs, not reconstructions of any real broch, not to scale, and not copied from any site plan, map, guidebook, print, photo or book. Not affiliated with Historic Environment Scotland, UNESCO, the Shetland Amenity Trust, the RSPB, any government, the UK government or any museum. Their names, and the names of the places they look after, are used only to identify the places and sources we quote.

Licence: personal use. Print as many copies as you need for yourself and your household. Please don’t resell, re-upload or share it publicly. For club, school or commercial use, please email info@reallybyte.com.

Made by REALLYBYTE, the team behind brochs.forts.im. Questions: info@reallybyte.com

This is a digital download: no physical item will be shipped.