Field Visit
Date 4 August 1915
Event ID 1103446
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1103446
Dun Nighean Righ Lochlainn, Loch an Duin, Breinish.
This dun is situated on an islet in the very small loch, Loch an Duin, lying at the eastern border of the peninsula of Breinish on the northern shore of Loch Eport, from which it is separated by a ridge of land barely 100 yards in width. Sometimes called Dun Eideann, Dun Nighean Righ Lochlainn bears a strong resemblance to the dun of the same name in Portain (NF97SE 4), the north-eastern part of North Uist. The dun occupies the whole area of the islet and is surrounded by a stone wall rising directly out of the water with a slight inward batter, which still shows a height of about 5, feet 6 inches, except on the north-east where it is only about 2 feet 6 inches high. The wall measures about 4 feet 6 inches in width across the top. The fort is oval on plan, measuring all over some 31 feet from north-west to south-east, and some 26 feet across. The position of the entrance is doubtful; on the north-west, opposite the nearest point of land some 86 feet distant, a collapse in the wall may indicate where it was situated, while at the opposite side, the southeast, what appears to be the western jamb of an opening can be detected under a thick cover of honeysuckle and brambles. There are evidently structures within the dun, but these are quite hidden under very rank vegetation and brushwood. (Fig. 108.)
From the north-western shore of the loch, what looks like the commencement of a stone causeway extends some 32 feet into the water in the direction of the dun, but in the next 54 feet there are no indications of its continuation in the bed of the loch, which is 4 feet 6 inches deep at this part.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 4 August 1915.
OS map: North Uist xl (unnoted).
