Skitten Broch

Skitten Broch was an Iron Age stone structure in Caithness, northern Scotland. It stood between the villages of Killimster and North Killimster, close to the modern RAF Skitten base. The broch was built long before the aerodrome, yet its remains were later buried under the runways. In 1904 Sir Francis Tress Barry led the first excavation of the site. A second dig took place in 1940, just before the broch was destroyed to make way for the aerodrome. The broch’s destruction came during the construction of Killimster aerodrome in the early 1940s. This aerodrome later became RAF Skitten, a military airfield used in the Second World War. Operation Freshman, a secret British mission, also departed from Killimster aerodrome. Both excavations revealed the broch’s stone walls and internal structure before it vanished beneath the tarmac. Today nothing of the broch remains visible above ground. The site lies beneath the runways and taxiways of the former RAF base. Visitors to the area see only flat grassland where the broch once stood. The only trace is the memory preserved in excavation reports and local history. The broch’s story is told through the work of Barry and Calder, whose records keep its Iron Age past alive.