Note
Date 29 February 2016 - 18 May 2016
Event ID 1044091
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044091
Oblique aerial photography and satellite imagery suggest that the now inaccessible coastal stack on the N side of the Voe of Dale, has been occupied, though whether as a promontory fort, a monastic site, or indeed a more recent stronghold, is not known. Traces of a bank or ruined wall can be seen on the photographs at the ENE end of the summit of the promontory facing onto an impassable cleft eroded through the neck on the landward side. The bank appears to return westwards along the crest on the NNW to where there is apparently a cluster of rectangular structures occupying the seaward end. The enclosed area on the summit measures about 45m from ENE to WSW by between 9m and 20m transversely (0.07ha) but tails off into bare rock outcrops descending towards the sea on bothe the NNW and WSW. First noted from the neighbouring cliffs by Raymond Lamb (1971), for reasons unknown it was not included in his subsequent synthesis of the promontory forts of the Northern Isles (1980), and though it has never been visited there seems little doubt that this is some form of ancient promontory enclosure, its inaccessible position casting it alongside other promontory forts.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC4175
