Archaeology Notes

Event ID 648011

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/648011

NB54NW 1 5368 4970

(NB 537 496) Caisteal a' Mhorair (NAT)

OS 6"map, Ross-shire, 2nd ed., (1898)

There is a dun on Caisteal a' Mhorair. This is a pinnacle of rock rising some 70ft above the sand on the S side of Traigh Geiraha.

The flat, oval summit, measuring some 60ft from ESE to WNW by about 24ft, is encircled by a wall now 4 to 6ft wide and 1 1/2ft high. The greater part, towards the NW, "is occupied by a roughly rectangular chamber 32ft long and 14ft broad, entered 11ft from the NW end by a passage in the SW flank 2ft 9ins broad and walled for a length of 14ft. Access to this entrance is obtained by climbing a dangerously steep rib of rock opposite it, the cliff otherwise being unclimbable.

Opening from the SE end of the main chamber through a passage about 2ft wide and 4ft long is a smaller chamber lying transversely across the summit, 10 1/2ft long and 7ft broad. Between this latter division and the SE extremity of the summit, which contracts to a width of about 15ft, is a circular stone lined hollow 5ft in diameter and 1 1/2ft deep. A quernstone and fragments of rough hand-made pottery have been found here."

RCAHMS 1928, visited 3 July 1914.

Caisteal a' Mhorair is a substantial building divided into two compartments and generally as described by the RCAHMS, except that it does not encircle the summit of the rock stack on which it is situated. It is probably a medieval stronghold or 'late dun', examples of which occur in North and South Uist (cf RCAHMS 1928 xxxv, xl).

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (A A) 14 June 1969.