Field Visit
Date 3 July 1914
Event ID 1102852
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1102852
Dun, Caisteal a' Mhorair, Traigh Geiraha, North Tolsta.
On the south side of Traigh Geiraha a sandy bay hemmed in by steep stony hills, about 1 ¼ miles north of Tolsta, are five isolated stacks or pinnacles of rock springing out of the sand and surrounded by water at certain stages of the tide. The outer pinnacle, Caisteal a Mhorair, which is the largest and highest and which is pierced from east to west by a natural tunnel through which the tide rushes, stands some 100 yards from the top of the cliff on the southern shore of the bay and rises some 70 feet above the sands. The flat oval summit measuring some 60 feet from east south-east to west-north-west and about 24 feet broad is defended by a wall 4 to 6 feet wide and now 1 ½ feet high built round the precipitous edge. The greater part of the summit towards the north-west is occupied by a roughly rectangular chamber 32 feet long and 14 feet broad, entered 11 feet from the north-western end by a passage in the south-western flank 2 feet 9 inches broad and walled for a length of climbing a dangerously steep rib of rock opposite it, the cliff otherwise being unclimbable. Opening from the south-eastern end of the main chamber through a passage about 2 feet wide and 4 feet long is a smaller chamber lying transversely across the summit, 10 ½ feet long and 7 feet broad. Between this latter division and the south-eastern extremity of the summit, which contracts to a width of about 15 feet, is a circular stone lined hollow 5 feet in diameter and 1 ½ feet deep.
A quern-stone and fragments of rough handmade pottery have been found here.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 3 July 1914
OS map: Lewis x.
