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Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 587048
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/587048
NG26 2 DUN BORRAFIACH
NG/2355 6371
This broch in Duirinish, Skye – the second one encountered when going north along the west coast of the Vaternish peninsula – stands above old field systems but directly on the sloping hillside instead of on a rocky knoll (visited 24/4/63 and in 1985). There are no modern settlements nearby but abundant traces of former cultivation are apparent in the form of ruined dykes and stone longhouses .
Description
The broch is well preserved but encumbered with debris inside and out; the outer face of the wall stands from 6-10 ft (1.8-3.05m) high. Some of the blocks in the wall are very large; one measures 3 ft (91cm) in length by 2 ft 9 (83cm) high; most are rectangular blocks neatly fitted together .
The entrance is visible on the north-west, having been partly cleared out, and its left wall rises to the position of the lintels, now displaced. A slab door-check on the right is apparent 0.5m from the outer end [3]. A further side wall is visible on the right above lintel level, set back slightly from the face below, which should be part of a void or chamber over the entrance. Swanson observed that the inside face of the upper gallery meets the upper part of the entrance passage on this side [3, plan]. She recorded two faces on the left side of the passage and considers the lower one to be the remains of a secondary narrowing because it continues into the interior; her plan certainly seems to support this [3].
The sides of the inner face of an upper mural gallery (about 12 ft, or 3.66 m, above the ground on the east side) are visible at about 8.30-9 o'clock and again from 12-2 and 3.30-6 o'clock, confirming that the structure is a hollow-walled broch. A short section of the outer face of this is preserved at about 11.30 o'clock.
Dimensions
The external diameter is about 57 ft (17.4m), the internal one 32 ft 9 in (10.0m): the wall proportion is therefore about 42.5%. Swanson gives the internal diameter as 9.9m from north to south with a wall width of from 3-4m.
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NG 26 SW 2.0: 2. RCAHMS 1928, 159, no. 510 and fig. 230: 3. Swanson (ms) 1985, 848-49 and plan: 4. MacSween 1984-85, 43, no. 12, fig. 2 and pl. 8.
E W MacKie 2007
