Publication Account
Date 2007
Event ID 587229
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/587229
NM44 1 DUN CHOINICHEAN
NM/4409 4312
This site was also originally thought by the author to be a probable D-shaped semibroch but the evidence is not clear; it could be a “galleried dun”, although some features which favour the author’s diagnosis were apparently not visible in 1975 [2]. The site stands on the mountainside, on top of a steep-sided rock knoll projecting from the middle of a steeply descending, wooded gully with a stream (visited 5/6/64).
On its east and south sides the knoll, or projecting platform, has precipitous faces while on the west and north there are short, steep slopes. The top of the platform is flat and the site has a good view out to sea. The wall of the dun runs round the edge of three sides of the knoll so that its plan is like a squashed ‘D’, the precipitous east side forming the open, straight side.
A passage about 3.28m (10 ft 9 in) long runs through the west wall which stands perhaps 4.48m (15 ft) high, including several courses buried by fallen rubble. There are several feet of wallface below the outer end (as at Dun Ardtreck – NG33 2); the rock surface evidently slopes down sharply here. On the north or uphill side there is a doorway from the interior to a mural gallery, about 45cm (18 in) wide; this opening was not observed by the Commission eleven years later although the inner face of the gallery was [2]. This opening is well above the entrance on the west although it may not be far above the outside ground surface on the north. There were also faint traces of a gallery on the south-west in 1964.
Discussion
Again only excavation will reveal the structural features clearly, and determine if this little dun has the hollow-wall construction of a semibroch, but the signs seem promising. The wall around the entrance, on the steep western side, might be revealing.
Dimensions: from north to south the wall is 3.20m (10.5 ft) thick and the interior is about 9.0m (25 ft) across. The south wall seems to be about 6.1m (20 ft) thick as it straightens out to merge with the cliff. From west to east the wall is 3.36m (11 ft) thick and the Central court measures about 7m (23 ft) along the cliff edge.
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NM 44 SW 1: 2. RCAHMS 1980, 107, no. 203 and fig. 121.
E W MacKie 2007
