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Field Visit

Date 24 August 1914

Event ID 1103751

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1103751

Dun Vulan, Rudha Ardvule, Bornish.

Projecting into the Atlantic about 1 mile west of Bornish, and about 8 miles north-north-west of Lochboisdale, is a low, sandy peninsula, Rudha Ardvule, the greater part of which is occupied by a shallow loch. On the summit of the storm-ridge of shingle, thrown up to a height of barely 10 feet above high-water mark, between the southern shore of the peninsula and the loch, and towards the eastern end of the latter, are the ruins of Dun Vulan, a circular or slightly oval fort measuring about 56 feet in diameter externally from north-west to south-east, the wall on the south being built among the shingle, and on the north within 5 feet of the inland loch. The outer face of the wall is quite broken down on the south-west, but the foundation course is traceable on the eastern arc, and towards the north-east three courses remain in position. The inner portion of the wall remains about 5 feet in height, but its building is obscured by a more recent structure erected in the interior of the dun. The wall of the fort is about 11 feet thick on the north and15 feet on the east. Within the wall, some 4 feet 3 inches from the inner face on the north-east, a short line of building is seen, as if there had been a gallery within its thickness at this part. It is impossible to determine the position of the entrance. The later structure inside the dun is built towards the western side, its main axis running north and south. It is an irregular oval, somewhat kidney-shaped on plan, the western wall curving inwards slightly at the centre; it measures 18 feet in length and 14 feet 8 inches in breadth, its wall, which is 5 feet high, being 3 feet to 5 feet thick. The entrance, 4 feet 9 inches wide, is in the east, and the northern wall of the entrance is continued outwards in a southern curve for a distance of 10 feet, when it runs into the line of the inner face of the wall of the original dun.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 24 August 1914.

OS map: South Uist lii.

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