Clickimin Broch

	The sign points to Clickimin Broch, on an island in the middle of the lake

The first day I arrived in the Shetlands I was in a hurry to get to Mousa while the good weather lasted, but coming round a corner and spotting Clickimin Broch gleaming white in the sunshine was a severe temptation!

I resisted and it wasn't until nearly a week later that I finally got round to visiting it. The broch is on an island in a lake (now connected to the mainland by a wide causeway) and in my opinion finally settles the question of whether brochs were fortresses or merely quirky habitations.

The defences of the broch are really quite sophisticated. Not only is there the very narrow causeway which once led to it, but there is a false wall inside the main gateway, the doorway to the broch is around the side, hidden in a clutter of outbuildings, and the whole is surrounded by a substantial wall. For its time, it must have been impregnable!

I am immensely grateful to a council workman I encountered quite by chance who told me where the weathered footprints were concealed and spilled one or two secrets about how the broch was rennovated to make the gleaming masterpiece we now see.