Laser Scanning
Date 9 June 2015 - 11 June 2015
Event ID 1026130
Category Recording
Type Laser Scanning
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1026130
NH 149 900 A survey of the broch of Dun an Ruigh Ruidh overlooking Loch Broom, near Ullapool was carried out, 9–11 June 2015. The survey was undertaken using a Trimble FX laser scanner, and a detailed descriptive report and photographic record compiled.
Dun an Ruigh Ruaidh is situated on a steep NE-facing slope, immediately above a rocky cliff above Loch Broom, over which part of the structure has collapsed. The broch commands extensive views over Loch Broom and the narrow strip of arable land lying between the foot of the cliff and Loch Broom.
The site is C-shaped in plan with the NE parts of the site having collapsed over the cliff. The broch measures 19.6m NW/SE by 14.4m NE/SW, externally and 10.9m by 10.5m internally. The walls of the broch vary between 3.7m and 5.0m in thickness and vary between 0.5m and 2.4m high. Dun an Ruigh Ruaidh lies at 87.7m OD with the cliffs below dropping to 76.4m OD.
The walls of the broch are constructed of dry-stone, built of large stones of mainly Moine schist with small pinning stones filling the gaps and levelling the courses. In many places these pinning stones have fallen out. A sheep fold and dip have been constructed against the SW wall of the site, probably from collapsed stonework and rubble cleared from against the walls. A field boundary bank extends along the top of the cliff to the NW and SE of the broch.
The entrance of the broch is hard to discern but lies on the SE of the wall circuit and is now filled with rubble and grassed over. The inner end of the entrance passage way is blocked with a dry-stone wall face, forming a continuation of the inner broch wall face. The entrance passage way is 1.9m wide and 4.8m in length. MacKie’s excavations revealed two door-checks formed of upright stone slabs, about 1m from the external wall. Immediately internal to the SW door check lay a posthole that may have been the pivot for the door.
In the S, in the interior of the broch, is a now rubble-filled entrance passageway 1.6m in length and 0.9m in width with 0.5m of the height of the infilled entrance being visible above the rubble in the interior of the broch. A displaced lintel lies across the top of the rubble-filled entrance. The entrance passage leads to an intramural gallery that curves to the E towards the broch entrance and to the W, where the gallery rises to an upper level gallery, no stairs are now visible however. To the E of the entrance passageway the ground level gallery is 0.7m wide and extends for 3.0m. A lintel slab 1.4m by 0.4m survives at the junction between the entrance passageway and the ground floor gallery. As the gallery extends W and N from the entrance passage it must rise to a second entrance passage that enters the gallery from the SSW of the broch. This passage way extends for 1.6m, is 0.8m wide and survives 0.2m high.
The interior wall face of the broch features a prominent scarcement ledge, which averages c0.35 to 0.4m in width and is somewhat less than level, there being c0.5m difference between its highest point on the SE side and the lowest on the NW side.
Archive: National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) intended
Funder: Forestry Commission Scotland
Jamie Humble - AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES, Volume 16)
