Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1018740
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018740
Dun Scaich or Dun Scaith is said to have been built in a single night by the fairies or by a witch. It was to this fortress that the hero Cuchulainn came for instruction in the arts of war by the warrior Queen Scathach according to legend. It is described as being surrounded by seven ramparts crowned by iron palisades and protected by a pit full of snakes and beaked toads! Whatever its traditional origin, the castle was used in late medieval times by the MacDonalds of Sleat.
The most impressive aspect of Dun Scaich is now its landward side, where the wall stands in places to a height of 5m. It is built upon a rock with precipitous sides, and approached by a causeway, partly natural, which leads to a bridge over a gully in the rock. The floor of the bridge is now missing. Beyond this a flight of steps climbs between walls to the entrance, to the left of which the wall stands to a considerable height; in the corner to the right there are the remains of a room incorporating a garderobe. The whole of the top of the rock was originally enclosed by a wall on all but the east side. Turf covered wall-bases or foundations show where some interior buildings stood. The break in the wall on the south side was probably a sea-gate. In the early 17th century the MacDonalds moved to Duntulm, in Trottemish (no. 26) but later returned to Sleat, to their new residence at Armadale (no. 1).
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Argyll and the Western Isles’, (1985).
