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Mousa
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==History== [[File:A misty day at Mousa Broch.jpg|left|thumb|A misty day at [[Mousa Broch]]]] [[File:Heladia Carta Marina.JPG|left|thumb|Shetland and Mousa on the [[Carta Marina]] in 1539]] {{Main|Broch of Mousa}} Mousa Broch is the best preserved Iron Age fortification in the British Isles.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst1405.html | title=Overview of Mousa| publisher=[[Gazetteer for Scotland]]| access-date=2007-12-10}}</ref> The 2000-year-old round tower stands above a rocky shoreline, one of a pair of [[broch]]s guarding Mousa Sound. They may be part of a chain of brochs in this part of Shetland, visible from each other as beacons. The other of the "pair", at Burland on the [[Mainland, Shetland|Mainland]] is far less well preserved.<ref>{{Canmore | desc=Broch of Burland | num=998 | access-date=21 September 2017}}</ref> Many brochs were the focus of a settlement, but there has never been a full archaeological investigation to confirm this at Mousa. It was cleared out in 1860 and 1919. Mousa has survived intact to such a height and is thought to never have been much higher than it is today. It escaped stone gathering for nearby stone walls and croft houses (now ruined).<ref name=broch>{{cite web| url=http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/mousa/mousabroch/index.html| title=Mousa Broch| publisher=Undiscovered Scotland| access-date=2007-12-09}}</ref> Mousa is mentioned in the [[Orkneyinga Saga]] as being used as a place of defence during invasions, as well as a lovers' hideout. The entrance passage into Mousa Broch is long, reflecting the enormous thickness of its walls.<ref>{{cite journal|first=D. |last=Thomas|year= 2011 |title=An Investigation of Aural Space inside Mousa Broch by Observation and Analysis of Sound and Light|website= www.intarch.ac.uk |issue=30|url= http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue30/thomas_index.html}}</ref> At its base the broch is 15m in diameter, but the interior is only 6m in diameter. Within the huge thickness of the base of the walls are a range of chambers probably used for storage, while at higher levels passages run between the inner and outer skins of the wall. On the inside a steep flight of steps leads to the top of the wall. Halfway up is a landing which probably gave access to an upper level of the interior of the broch, built on a ledge running around the circumference of the interior.<ref name=broch/> In July 1558, two Scottish ships from Aberdeen, the ''Meikle Swallow'' and ''Little Swallow'', attacked an English fleet off Shetland. The Scottish sailors took cattle and other goods belonging to [[Olave Sinclair]] on Mousa. Sinclair claimed compensation in the Edinburgh courts.<ref>John H. Ballantyne & Brian Smith, ''Shetland Documents, 1195-1579'' (Lerwick, 1999), p. 92 no. 129.</ref>
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