Field Visit
Date 12 June 1915
Event ID 1104213
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1104213
Dun a' Chaolais, Vatersay.
To the west of Ben Orosay, on the north of Vatersay, some 400 yards south of the Sound of Vatersay, at an elevation of 100 feet above sea level, is a broch, Dun a' Chaolais, built on a rocky knoll rising sharply about 20 feet above its surroundings, except towards the south-east where it falls away gradually in a series of rocky steps. The broch is in a ruinous condition, the interior being full of fallen stones. While the outer face is almost entirely broken down, its best preserved part, on the south-west, still maintains a height of 3 feet ; on the inside, owing to the protection afforded by the dislodged stones, it is in better condition, and on the north-west a height of probably about 10 feet remains. The broch is circular, measuring about 29 feet 6 inches in diameter internally, and the wall varies from 10 feet 3 inches to nearly 12 feet in thickness. Part of a scarcement 8 inches wide is seen on the inside of the south-western arc of the wall, but its height is not determinable. The entrance has probably been slightly to the south of east. Within the thickness of the wall to the north of the supposed entrance there is a small circular cell 4 feet in diameter above the debris which it contains, and to the south of the entrance the inner curve of an oval cell, 7 feet in length, is traceable. Portions of a gallery on the ground level within the wall are seen round the greater part of the western half of the building, many lintel stones remaining in position. The gallery is about 3 feet wide, and the inner wall varies from 3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 2 inches in thickness, and the outer wall from 3 feet to 4 feet 6 inches. This chamber is full of debris. The inner face of the inner wall of an upper gallery, standing 2 feet in height above the lintels of the lower gallery, survives at several places on the west.
To the west of the broch there has been an outer courtyard enclosed by a stone wall, its outer face built at a distance of 30 feet 10 inches from the main building. This wall, which shows a height of 3 feet in one place, is built on the edge of the rock, and curves round to meet the wall of the broch on the north.
There are numerous stone foundations outside the dun, several of them evidently of late date.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 12 June 1915.
OS map: Barra lxiv.
