Field Visit
Date November 1986
Event ID 610931
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/610931
Situated at the SW end of Eilean Buidhe, one of the Burnt Isles at the N tip of the Kyle of Bute, and 350m S of Caol Ruadh, there is a vitrified dun. Approximately circular on plan, the dun measures about 19.5m in diameter within a wall some 4m in thickness; it was excavated by J H Maxwell in 1936 and, as the site is now heavily overgrown, this account and the plan are largely based upon the published report (Maxwell 1941). Two stretches of inner facing-stones were discovered on the N and on the W, and investigation of the core of the wall revealed large quantities of vitrified material forming a band up to 1.5m thick. The entrance probably lay within the gap in the wall on the NNE, but the evidence was inconclusive. Excavations in the interior uncovered a layer of charcoal, which extended beneath the inner face of the wall, as well as areas of rough paving, but no traces of internal strctures were identified. A small hollow or cistern 'about mid-way between the centre of the fort and the south point', first noted in 1822 (Trans Royal Soc of Edinburgh 1824), was emptied of water and cleared of silt, but no relics were found. When the site was described in the last century features interpreted as the bases of towers were recorded abutting the outer wall of the dun at the cardinal points of the compass (Hewison 1893); Maxwell's excavations, however, provided no evidence for the existence of such structures, though scatters of rubble from the dun wall were encountered at these points.
Visited November 1986
RCAHMS 1988
