Database Update

Date 3 May 2009

Event ID 629218

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/629218

This fort is formed by a stone wall some 15m in length cutting across the narrow neck of a precipitous promontory, which, unusually, forms a summit from which the ground falls away on both the landward and seaward sides. The wall is spread about 3.3m in thickness and forms a stony scarp up to 1.3m in height along the leading edge of the summit on the E and is fronted by a terrace cut back into the slope. This latter feature is broken midway across the neck by what appears to be an entrance lined with boulders to either side, and may be some form of outer defence, though there is little sign of any structural stonework where it peters out on the cliffs to N and S. There are also traces of a second, lower, terrace on the S side of the neck, but its purpose is unknown. Behind the fort wall, there is a marked hollow in the summit area, which gives the impression that these are the remains of a broch or dun that has collapsed over the cliff on the N, but in practice the lip of this hollow on the S and W is entirely natural. The rest of the promontory, which on plan is shaped like a hammerhead, is featureless. On the landward side a field-bank drops away eastwards down the slope from the boulders marking the possible entrance, linking into a more extensive landscape of buildings, enclosures and lazy-beds between the crofts of Mhangurstadh and the sea.

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH) 3 May 2009