Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 587227
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/587227
NM42 1 DUN BHUIRG
NM/4217 2624
This site – in Kilfinichan and Kilvickeon – is either a probable D-shaped semibroch or a sub-oval dun which has lost part of its wall [3]. In a very similar situation to, and very similar in plan to, Dun Ardtreck on Skye (NG33 2), it stands on the summit of a high and steep knoll which rises at the seaward edge of a flat strip of cultivated land (only about 200m wide) which is bounded by low cliffs. The knoll backs on to a 15m (50 ft) drop down to a scree slope which falls another 30m (100 ft) to the beach (visited 6/6/64).
The structure is D-shaped in plan with traces of a thin wall along the cliff edge forming the straight side; the Commission thought that most of the wall on this side had fallen over the cliff [3]. The entrance faces east-south-east and is parallel to the cliff edge; a door-frame with built checks is apparent 1.02m (3 ft 4 in) from the outside and the passage itself is 3.2m (10 ft 9 in) long.
About 2.1m (7 ft) to the right of the entrance is a doorway from the interior to a chamber from which a mural stair (which has been cleared of debris) rises clockwise back towards the entrance; this chamber can hardly be called a stair-foot guard cell as it barely extends to the left of the doorway. There are possible traces of a mural gallery on the dilapidated wallhead further round but the signs are ambiguous and they are not mentioned by the Commission.
There is an apparently short outer wall a short distance in front of the entrance and with a possible corner- stone of a doorway in it, approximately in line with the main door. At the foot of the knoll, to the east and north of the dun, are the clear signs of another outer wall.
Discussion
Without systematic excavation the identity of the site as a D-shaped semibroch cannot be demonstrated, although the stairway pointing towards the entrance might imply that there was a gallery running over it. The traces of the wall gallery observed in 1964 are obviously no longer visible.
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NM 42 NW 1: 2. Childe 1935, 199: 3: RCAHMS 1980, 101, no. 186 and fig. 118.
E W MacKie 2007
