Field Visit
Date 10 June 1921
Event ID 1104621
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1104621
Dun Osdale.
On the south-west side of the road from Dunvegan to Glendale, some 100 yards south-east from the junction of the road to Uiginish Lodge, at an elevation of about 130 feet above sea-level, is Dun Osdale, a ruined broch, which occupies the north-western extremity of a short ridge with a rocky escarpment some 40 feet in height along its north-eastern flank and some 20 feet in height at its north-western extremity; to the south-west a slight hollow intervenes between it and the hill Dun Chlach, and to the south-east the ground is almost level.
The outer face of the wall of the broch for a great part is reduced to the lower courses, but on the west-south-west a section still maintains a height of about 7 feet; on the south, although hidden by fallen stones, it is about 4 to 5 feet high, and on the north-east there is a very short section 3 feet in height. The stones are of considerable size and laid in regular courses. In the interior a mass of tumbled stone obscures the most of the inner face of the wall, but on the south and north-west it stands about 8 feet above the debris. The broch is circular with an internal diameter of 35 feet to 36 feet 6 inches, and the wall thickens from 10 feet on the north to 13 feet 7 inches on the south. The entrance, which is on the east, is badly broken down, but near the inside has a width of 3 feet z inches, and appears to have been 2 feet 10 inches on the outside. It has run straight through the wall without checks. In the thickness of the wall to the south of the entrance is an oval chamber measuring 10 feet long by 4 feet 9 inches broad above the debris with which it is half filled. The roof has fallen in, but the internal corbelling of the walls is well displayed. The fallen stones no doubt still cover the entrance, which has probably been from the interior. Within the western arc of the wall, nearly opposite the main doorway, is another oval cell 12 feet in length and 4 feet 6 inches in breadth over debris, with a doorway 2 feet 9 inches wide; its outer and inner walls are 5 feet 9 inches and 2 feet 6 inches respectively. The roof of this chamber has also collapsed, but from the masonry which remains in position it must have been over 6 feet in height. Immediately to the west of the cell near the entrance are exposed the left jamb of a door and a short length of a gallery 3 feet 6 inches wide in the thickness of the southern wall, which probably contained the stair, as traces of a gallery at a higher level than the oval chambers are seen here, the inner wall being about 3 feet and the outer 8 feet thick. Parts of a scarcement 9 inches wide can be detected on the north-western and south-eastern arcs.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 10 June 1921.
OS map: Skye xxi.
