Archaeology Notes

Event ID 648229

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/648229

NB03SE 1 05031 33255

(NB 0502 3322) Dun Borranish (NR)

OS 6" map, (1965)

The dilapidated remains of Dun Borranish or Dun Cuithach, as it is sometimes called, from a mythological giant who, after oppressing the country, was slain by the Fians.

The remains of the building, now a tumbled mass of stones, measure 49' overall NNE - SSW and 43' WNW - ESE. The entrance seems to have been on the NNW. Very little of the outer facing of the wall remains in position, but a section towards the NNE, which is straight, suggests that the building has been D-shaped. On the side facing the shore some not wholly ruined wall gives a thickness of 9' but there is no trace of galleries. The dun is connected with the land by a causeway, 70' long by 7' broad, which is laid obliquely across the intervening sand.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 1914.

Fragments of hand made pottery from the site were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) by J G Callander.

Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1914.

Dun Borranish - the tumbled remains of a dun which straddles a hog-backed island. The outer wall face can be traced for most of the periphery except in the W where it has been destroyed. The inner wall face is visible occasionally around the E arc and it is particularly well defined in the N and S arcs where two later bothies abut onto it, giving a wall thickness ranging from 3.2m to 2.6m. The entrance is not apparent but could have been in the NNW as suggested by RCAHMS. The causeway is as described.

Midden material containing sherds of thick coarse pottery is visible in several places around the dun.

Surveyed at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (R L) 28 June 1969.