Field Visit

Date 20 April 2015 - 22 April 2015

Event ID 1103135

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1103135

Field visits were undertaken to various sites, 20–22 April 2015, as part of a general survey of forts on Skye carried out by Simon Wood and Ian Ralston as part of the fieldwork for the former’s PhD research.

NG 48920 45270 Dun Gerashader (Canmore ID: 11271) Described by RCAHMS (1928) as 'a fort of great strength', this site is actually represents the remains of two different forts. The later fort, as identified and planned by RCAHMS, survives as a massive stone wall up to six courses high, with an entrance in the E. A rectangular enclosure noted to the SW by RCAHMS is not an enclosure but the inner and outer face of a rampart with an entrance through it. The facing stones of the entrance likely influenced the previous misidentification of this feature as they superficially represent the shorter E side of a rectangular enclosure. This rampart continues to the E and includes many very large stones. Facing stones of this rampart continue along the W and E sides of the hill to the N and appear to be overlain by the large well-built wall of the later fort. This is almost certainly an earlier fort with an entrance to the S, with this entrance later blocked by the surviving wall of the later fort. The two lines of boulders identified by RCAHMS may be ramparts contemporary with the earlier fort as they appear to contain similarly sized large stones. Alternatively, they may represent reuse of the boulders from the earlier fort to add extra lines of defence or create a visually intimidating barrier on the more accesible S side of the knoll.

Archive: National Record of the Historic Environment (intended)

Funder: School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh

Simon Wood and Ian Ralston – University of Edinburgh

(Source: DES, Volume 16)