Note
Date 21 January 2015 - 31 May 2016
Event ID 1044220
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1044220
The structure known as Dun Ardtreck is now semicircular, backing onto the cliff-edge on the SW flank of this coastal stack, which falls some 15m sheer into the sea. Elsewhere the cliffs are not quite so imposing, though nevertheless providing a formidable obstacle which was enhanced by the construction of a wall about 2.3m in thickness around the E margin of the summit area, forming an enclosure measuring internally about 40m from NW to SE by at least 17m transversely (0.07ha); this wall barred the only possible points of access and included an entrance 1.2m wide on the ESE. The relationship of this wall to the dun is uncertain, though it is usually considered to be an outwork. The dun was never strictly circular, measuring 13.4m from NW to SE by 10.7m transversely to the present cliff-edge within a galleried wall measuring a maximum of 3.3m in thickness and still standing up to 2.4m in height; a checked entrance lies on the NE, with a guard cell on its N side. The wall seems to have narrowed slightly towards the cliff and turned quite sharply along its edge, where a substantial portion to complete the circuit has fallen into the sea. Excavations by Euan MacKie in 1965-5 indicate that the galleried wall was founded on a contiguous rubble platform and suggested that the wall itself may have stood as much as 6m in height. Small pieces of charcoal recovered from the foundation returned a radiocarbon date of 170 BC - AD 110. There were only slight traces of occupation before the structure suffered a fierce fire, following which the upper walls were taken down and the lintels removed from the passageway, much of the rubble lying in the area between the dun and the wall along the margin of the stack. The ruined shell was subsequently reoccupied, and the objects recovered from its floor deposits include Roman items, while a sherd of E-ware of early medieval date was found on its uppermost surface. While the fallen rubble from the dun fills the space within the outer wall, implying that they were at least broadly contemporary, there is no evidence that the latter was not initially a free-standing enclosure, nor that it continued to function as such during the later phases of occupation.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2734
