Archaeology Notes

Event ID 693428

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/693428

NR36SE 10 3713 6011

(NR 3713 6011) Dun Nosebridge (NR)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900).

Dun Nosebridge [NAT]

Fort [NR]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1981.

(Central Islay). Dun Nosebridge, ?vitrified fort, Mulindry, overlooking [the] upper Laggan valley. An isolated eminence rising above the cultivated lands, is crowned by a rectangular citadel (with rounded corners) 96ft [29.3m] by 55ft [16.8m] from crest to crest of the well-marked rampart. The entrance is in the middle of the N end. The rock falls away sheer on the E, but the slopes elsewhere are defended by two ditches with counterscarp banks, and the SW corner by four. The stone ramparts are entirely grass-grown, and no traces either of vitrifaction or of building were exposed, but the form of the citadel recalls Dunagoil, Carradale, etc. [This monument cannot be identified].

(This monument is 'closely allied in structure and situation' to [nearby] Dun Guiadhre [NR36SE 9: Childe no. 9], both standing 'close to good agricultural land').

V G Childe 1935 (no. 12).

Dun Noesbridge [Nosebridge], a fort, stands on an isolated eminence and consists of a well-preserved rampart enclosing an area 17m by 29m from crest to crest. There is an entrance in the middle of the N end and outworks defend the central citadel everywhere except on the E where the rock face is sheer. The outworks are particularly impressive and consist of two outer banks and ditches except at the SW where there are four. The rectangular shape may mean that this is a small timber-framed hillfort which has not been burnt and vitrified (MacKie 1975). A resistivity survey carried out in 1961 within the citadel indicated only boulders spilling inwards from the ramparts; the readings were not appreciably affected by the lazy beds within the enclosure.

V G Childe 1935; W I Carter 1961; E W MacKie 1975.

Dun Nosebridge is as described by the previous authorities.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (J B) 10 June 1978.