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The tall, broken wall of Dun Carloway broch rising from a green knoll under a blue sky.
Outer Hebrides

Dun Carloway Broch

A 2,000-year-old broch tower on a rocky knoll near Carloway, still standing nine metres tall.

Welcome

Dun Carloway is the best-preserved Iron Age building on Lewis: a broch, a drystone tower of a kind found only in Scotland, standing on a rocky knoll near Carloway with wide views over the hills and lochs.

It was probably built around 200 BC, perhaps as the house of a local chief and a statement of his power, and at nine metres it still stands close to its full height, one of only a handful of brochs that do.

Where part of the wall has fallen, it shows a perfect cross-section: two walls, one inside the other, with galleries between them in two tiers, a stair that once climbed to the upper floors, a stone ledge that held a floor, and a low entrance passage with a small cell off it, perhaps a guard-room. It stayed in use on and off for centuries: as a pottery kiln, by tradition as a refuge for the Morrisons of Ness in a cattle raid in the 1500s, and as a family's home as late as the 1870s. It is open all year.

A short drive awayGearrannan Blackhouse VillageA village of nine restored thatched blackhouses by the sea at Garenin, lived in until 1974.9 min by roadSee itThe thatched blackhouses of Gearrannan from above, by a small bay under a grey sky.
Before you go

Dun Carloway is near Carloway, on the west coast of Lewis, open all year and free.

A short path climbs from the road to the broch.

Getting there
CalMac ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway, 2 hours 45 minutes; or from Skye to Harris and drive north.
Open
All year.
Height
9 metres.
Where it is

Doune, Carloway, Isle of Lewis, HS2 9AZ.

Close byNear Carloway.
  1. Golden sand and dark rocks at Dalmore Beach below rugged cliffs.Dalmore BeachA sandy surf beach between cliffs on the west coast of Lewis, with sea stacks and an old cemetery above.4 miles8 min by road
  2. Roadside honesty stall selling Hebridean Copper Kettle Fudge, baking and fresh eggs, Isle of LewisHebridean Copper Kettle FudgeA roadside honesty box at Breasclete on Lewis selling fudge made in a copper kettle, along with home baking and eggs.5 miles7 min by road
  3. Alpacas in coloured coats stand on a grassy hillsideCallanish Alpacas6 miles9 min by road
  4. Callanish StonesCallanish StonesA cross-shaped setting of standing stones on a ridge above Loch Roag, raised 5,000 years ago, before Stonehenge.7 miles12 min by road
  5. The top of the Whalebone Arch, the harpoon hanging from the bones against a blue sky.Whalebone ArchAn arch made of the jawbones of a blue whale that came ashore in 1920, in a garden by the road at Bragar.9 miles13 min by road
Directions
The thatched blackhouses of Gearrannan from above, by a small bay under a grey sky.AttractionsGearrannan Blackhouse Village3.1 miles
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