Field Visit
Date June 1971
Event ID 1192287
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1192287
NM 805 264. This small tower-house, probably completed by Duncan MacDougall of MacDougall and Dunollie in 1582, is dramatically situated at the SW extremity of a rocky promontory near the S shore of the island of Kerrera (Pls. 63, 64A, B). Cliffs of agglomerate, rising sheer to a height of about 17 m, surround the site on all sides except the Nand NE where steep grass-covered slopes permit access to an outer bailey (Fig. 191). The highest point of this bailey is about3'5 m above the level of the SW part of the promontory, to which it is linked by a narrow neck of ground whose entire width is occupied by the tower-house and a defensive forework. The area SW of the tower was enclosed by a stone wall measuring some 0'9 m in thickness; it shows traces of ridges running from SE to NW and may have been used as a garden. The extreme SW point of the promontory, which is penetrated at ground-level by a natural archway, appears not to have been included within the defensive system.
The tower-house is a homogeneous structure which was occupied for a period of only 65 years before being destroyed by fire, and has undergone no alteration. Despite fears for its survival expressed in 1887, only one small section of the upper part of the W wall has collapsed since that date (Cast. and Dom. Arch, ii, 70-4). Certain important carved stones were removed to Dunollie House for preservation during the 19th century, and in 1913 HM Office of Works undertook a limited programme of consolidation.
See RCAHMS 1975 (pp. 217-223, No. 291, figs. 191-196, plates 63-5) for a full architectural description, a description of the carved stones at Dunollie House, and a historical note.
RCAHMS 1975, visited June 1971.
