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Field Visit

Date 20 September 2012

Event ID 935197

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/935197

This broch, which stands on an islet in an occasionally tidal loch, is connected to another islet (Eilean na Mi-chomhairle) 60m to the WSW, by a substantial causeway. In turn, Eilean na Mi-chomhairle is connected to the N shore by a second causeway that incorporates another (very small) islet, and to the S shore by a series of stepping stones. Four later buildings have been built in and around the broch.

Roughly circular in plan, with a notable bulge in the outer wall-face on the W caused by subsidence, the broch measures 12m in diameter within a wall up to 3.7m in thickness and best preserved on the E, where it stands to a visible height of 2.4m. The outer face of the wall has a marked batter and there is an entrance on the SW. This has been modified and the original width cannot now be ascertained. Moreover, most, if not all, of the lintels that once roofed the passage and which now form a footpath to the interior, are probably not in their original positions.

A ground-floor cell, constructed within the thickness of the broch wall, leads off the SE side of the entrance passage and was originally entered through a doorway 0.6m in width. Oval on plan, it measures 3.2m from NW to SE by 1.3m transversely and its corbelled roof has largely collapsed, leaving the interior largely choked with rubble. An intra-mural gallery, 0.7m in breadth, is visible within the broch wall on the E, S, SW (where it crosses over the top of the cell), and W; it may have been continuous, but sections of its wall-faces on the W and SW have been reconstructed and it is not now possible to establish from the visible remains whether it once continued across the top of the entrance passage. Two openings from the intra-mural gallery through the inner face of the broch wall, one on the S, the other on the SW (above the cell), are not original features and are noted below.

Inside the broch, most of the available space has been taken up by a two-compartment building that has been constructed on the debris filling the ground-floor of the earlier structure. Its principal room, which extends across the whole width of the interior of the broch from ENE to WSW, measures 9.9m in length by 4.9m within drystone walls that vary in thickness up to 2.4m on the WNW and SSW, where the upper part of the broch wall has been completely rebuilt. There are two openings in the NNW wall: close to the WSW end there is a splayed window, narrowing from 0.9m in width on the inside to 0.2m; and close to the ENE end there is a probable entrance measuring 1.1m in width. Outside the NNW side, the broch wall has been reduced in height, with the stubs at either end being retained behind neat, rebuilt masonry. This reduction in the wall was presumably undertaken to provide a clearer view from the window and access to the doorway. Another doorway, perhaps the primary one, is situated in the WSW end of the building. It measures 0.8m in width and there is a possible bar-hole in the NNW jamb. There is some evidence of rebuilding at the SE corner of the building, where a rebuilt section of the inner face of the ENE end forms a butt-joint against the original inner face of the SSE wall.

The second compartment is situated between the first and the broch wall on the SSE and measures internally 3.8m from ENE to WSW by 2.5m transversely. It was entered through a doorway, 0.8m in width, in the reconstructed gallery wall, which linked to the main entrance on the WSW via the gallery passage. The wall between the two compartments was depicted, if inaccurately, on Beveridge’s plan (1911, 140). The second opening from the intra-mural gallery is situated a little to the W of the first. However, since it is in a section of reconstructed gallery wall and because it merely leads into part of the broch interior otherwise occupied by the wall-core of the principal building, the conclusion must be that it belongs to a phase of construction that precedes the buildings that are visible today.

Two later rectangular buildings occupy the flat ground immediately to the E of the broch, and stand on prominent artificial platforms. Although mentioned by RCAHMS (1928) and OS (1965) – in both instances as ‘enclosures’ – they have not previously been described in detail. The first building, which abuts the NE side of the broch wall, measures 9.6m from ENE to WSW by about 6.4m transversely over grass-grown stone walls spread to 1.5m in thickness and 0.2m in height. There is an entrance on the NNW. Immediately to the S is a second of similar construction and size. The relationship between the two is not clear.

Other features on the islet include a marked scarp that extends about 10m NNE from the N side of the broch to the loch shore and a short stretch of bank running for a distance of at least 8m along the E side of island, immediately E of the two buildings reduced to footings. Neither seems substantial enough to support the proposal by previous authors that the broch had an outer wall (Beveridge 1911, 139; Armit 1990).

References to the story of Hugh, son of Archibald the Clerk, taking refuge at Dun an Sticer about 1601-1602 (OS Name Book 6, 78 (1877); Beveridge 1911) do not necessarily provide a date for the rectangular buildings on the island. Indeed, the substantial nature of the group and the evidence which demonstrates that the principal structure has been altered, probably on a number of occasions, may well indicate that the buildings are earlier, possibly originating in the medieval period.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, AGCH, IP) 20 September 2012.

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