Field Visit
Date May 1976
Event ID 1170231
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1170231
NR 207 617. This dun and its outworks are situated 1.8 km SW of Kilchoman on a rocky knoll which stands out from the foot of high cliffs immediately to the SE. Linked to the cliffs by a narrow spine of rock, the knoll has steep sides falling some 20m to level ground below, much of its NE side being a sheer rock face. The easiest approach is from the NNW over a series of narrow terraces.
The dun wall, which for most of its course follows the outline of the summit of the knoll to enclose a roughly circular area 12m in diameter, is 3.5m in average thickness; on the SW, however, where the footings of the outer face are set well below the crest line of the summit, the amount of rubble that survives suggests that here the wall reached a maximum thickness of about 5 m. On the N, where it is best preserved, the outer face stands to a height of 1.1m in five courses and is neatly constructed of roughly rectangular blocks, measuring up to 0.7m by 0.3m and brought to their courses with pinnings of small stones. Of the inner face only a single course is exposed above the debris that fills the interior. The entrance is on the WNW; it is 1.5m wide, and the walls of the passage are visible to a height of 0.9m above the debris.
Within the thickness of the wall there is a gallery 1m in average width. The side-walls are built of uncoursed rubble and, while for the most part they are exposed to a height of not more than 0.7m, for a short stretch on the s the inner side-wall is 1.3m high. The gallery is not continuous, as two opposing rounded terminals, 2.5m apart, are clearly visible on the E. From this point the N section of the gallery extends westward to within l-6m of the dun's entrance; at least two of the lintel-stones, each measuring about 0.9m by 0.5m and 0-1 m in thickness, remain in position at the E terminal, supported by rough corbelling. The S section of the gallery, which seems to be set at a higher level than the other, can be traced for a length of about 11m.
Additional protection was provided by an outer wall, of which traces can be seen intermittently as shown on the plan. On the ESE it was built along the NW edge of a natural cleft cutting transversely across the narrow spine of rock that joins the knoll to the foot of the cliffs. An unusual feature of this sector is the presence of parts of two distinct walls, the outer face of the one situated about 1m behind that of the other. There is little doubt that the more easterly of the two is an original outwork, but excavation would be needed to establish the relation between it and the more westerly element; although the latter was a substantial structure it is noticeably inferior in quality to most of the other walling on the site, and its rubble core material appears to overlie the remains of the dun wall. At the NE end of the natural cleft the outwork turns sharply to the NW to follow the line of the natural crest for about 8m, the outer face standing up to 0.9m in height. For some distance beyond this point no trace of walling survives, but intermittent stretches of outer facing-stones reappear on the outer edge of the highest natural terrace below the dun on the NW side. From there, after a gap which may mark the position of an original entrance, a spread of rubble core material, accompanied in places by short stretches of the outer face, up to 1.2m high, continues along the top of the steep scree-covered slopes on the w before making an abrupt change of direction to run towards the dun wall on the SW. Near the SW angle a single course of what may be an internal revetment is exposed to a height of 0.6m for a length of about 1.5m. A little to the NE, and inside the line of the outwork, a short detached length of walling appears to form the E side of an entrance-passage, of which the other side is roughly defined by a band of rubble, which links it with the outwork near its sw angle and near a small rectangular enclosure of recent date. It is difficult to regard this piece of walling as an original feature, and it is almost certainly a reconstruction made, possibly, at the same time as the inner of the two walls already mentioned ESE of the dun.
RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1976
