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Field Visit
Date 30 March 2022
Event ID 1147274
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1147274
NM71SE 2 75075 10784
The galleried dun at Leccamore has a panoramic view of the Sounds that flank Luing and is perhaps the most impressive of the island’s ancient monuments. It is much as previously described by the Ordnance Survey (1971) and RCAHMS (1975, No. 189), with the following observations focussed on the character and visibility of 19th century excavations. Antiquarian excavation has exposed many elements of the dun providing insights into architectural features such as the two entrances (one incorporating a reused cup-marked stone, a bar-hole and a door check), a staircase, a guard cell and outworks (compare with NR79SE 1, for example).
In a detailed examination of the dun in the 1880s, David Christison described how much of the site was ‘buried under a thick grass covering’ though his plan and notes make it clear that the SW entrance was visible at that time, as was the bar-hole in its SE jamb (1889, 406). Christison was accompanied on a ‘good many’ of his expeditions in Argyll by Allan Macnaughton of Taynuilt, and it was Macnaughton that opened Leccamore for examination. During a short holiday in 1890 he used workmen to ‘clear out the [SW] entrance’ (Macnaughton 1891, 478) and in 1892 he extended his exploration to the NE entrance (Macnaughton 1893).
The extent of the excavations, which involved ‘a waggon and several implements’ lent by local slate quarriers (1893, 380), are still evident on the ground and on visualisations derived from ALS data, as it seems little was done to return the monument to its previous state. Some of the excavation spoil takes up the NW of the interior, and a large cache of stones at the W end of the inner ditch is surely also related to his excavations. A band of rubble outside the SW entrance may also have been supplemented by excavation spoil, partially obscuring the line of an outer wall.
Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (G Geddes and D Bratt), 30 March 2022.
