Field Visit

Date 10 June 1921

Event ID 1104640

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1104640

RCAHMS Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles.

Dun Colbost, Colbost.

On the hillside rising from the western shore of Loch Dunvegan above the township of Colbost, at an elevation of about 320 feet above sea-level and ½ mile distant from the sea-shore, is a small plateau running east and west, and running from 20 to 30 feet above the surrounding ground, which at this part is fairly level. The edge of the plateau is rocky and in places these rocks rise perpendicularly from 10 to20 feet (Fig. 211). The plateau is occupied by Dun Colbost, a broch, now in a ruinous condition, much of the spoliation having taken place in recent years. The broch measures 52 feet from east to west and 57 feet from north to south on the axes externally; the wall, built of large blocks of stone laid in courses and having the usual batter, varies from about 11 to 12 feet in thickness. The inside wall is entirely obscured by the tumbled stones with which the interior is encumbered except fora short section on the west. The outer face of the wall can be traced all round, though much is hidden under fallen stones. On the east it is about 9 feet high, on the south 4 feet, on the west 6 feet, and on the north 7 feet. The entrance cannot be distinguished, but was probably on the west where the wall is broken. On the northern arc of the wall the western end of a ruined oval chamber is noticeable, the width being 3 feet 10 inches, its inner wall 3 feet 3 inches and its outer 4 feet 2 inches thick. On the east an opening 2 feet 10 inches wide and 5 feet 6 inches long has led from the interior into a gallery, 2 feet 3 inches wide, with outer wall 3 feet 9 inches thick. On entering, a short length of the gallery is on the left or north, and the main part is to the right. Though no steps are visible this has probably been the staircase, ascending to a higher level and apparently continuing as a gallery round the broch, as indicated from parts observed in the southern and north-western arcs, where it measures 2 feet and 1 foot 7 inches wide respectively.

The broch has been provided with an outer line of defence in the shape of a stone wall built near the rocky edge of the plateau and across the ridge at distances varying from 10 feet on the south-east to 27 feet on the north from the main building. This wall is best preserved where it crosses the ridge, and here it shows a thickness of about 6 feet and a height of 3 feet in places. The plateau extends about 20 yards to the west beyond the wall. The outer entrance to the broch seems to have been by a slanting roadway up a break in the rocky scarp of the plateau on the north-west.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 10 June 1921.

OS map: Skye xxi.