Stairhaven Broch

About Stairhaven Broch

Stairhaven Broch is only visitable with extreme care; it is situated on the rocky edge of the North West Machars coastline, with a steep scramble down cliffs or alternatively only at exteme low tides. There are only three brochs - dry stone Iron Age towers, which required precise engineering skills - situated in the South West. The other two are at Ardwell and at Teroy, near Innermessan. You may simply and more safetly prefer to glimpse it from above from the narrow coastal path which threads its way five miles along the cliffs and offers fine panoramic views over Luce Bay. The broch itself is said to have been damaged by once having housed an illicit whisky still, and perhaps further by some amateur excavations. The difficulty of reaching it is testament to its heavily defensible position, with the sea surrounding it, steep cliff above and a rocky promontory with narrow causeway over a deep gully. Excavations revealed walls up to 12 foot thick, an entrance way and an intra mural stair.
Stairhaven itself was a short-lived experiment by the Earl of Stair, who hoped to develop a port here from the mid 1840's; the advent of railways meant that the harbour never really gained the hoped-for trade. The coastline is rich in history, though, with the discovery of a Viking-era cross, recent reidentification of a lost Iron Age crannog site on farmland not far from the broch, and further towards Auchenmalg (if you complete the whole coastal walk) a magnificent standing stone dating to the Bronze Age. Not far from Stairhaven Broch, you will pass another promontory fort at Garliachen, where a natural promontory has been reinforced with man-made defences comprising a rampart, ditch and inner stone wall.
The coastal path runs all the way to Auchenmalg, with a steep scramble up from Stairhaven village among thorn bushes - sheltering the occasional cow!