The drystone walls are up to four metres thick in some parts and there is a complete chamber intact off the entrance passage.

Burroughston Broch overlooks the North Sea at the northeast corner of Shapinsay island, about 4 miles from the ferry pier.

[2] A deep well is present in the broch floor: the upper part being dry stone masonry, the lower being cut into the rock.

[2] The broch was excavated around 1862 ("shortly after the discovery of Maes Howe") by the estate-workers of Colonel D. Balfour under the direction of the antiquarian George Petrie.

According to Petrie, they were mostly deer-horn fragments, many ox and sheep bones and "several rude stone vessels of different sizes", including a possible triangular lamp.