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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 648407
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/648407
NC13SE 1 1688 3323.
(NC 1688 3323) An Dun (NR)
OS 6"map, (1967)
An Dun, Loch Ardbhair: This broch or dun stands on an isolated rock at the S end of Loch Ardbhair on its E shore, about 100' from the mainland, to which it is connected by a rough causeway of boulders, now part displaced. The broch is only approachable at low tide, and at high water there is little space between the edge of the rock and the base of the building. It is a dry-built circular construction with an interior diameter of 24', the wall being 10'6" thick near the base. The entrance passage is from the S, only 2' wide at the interior end, and remains to a height of 3'6" on the left side. The exterior end is not measureable. Of the outside wall, only one or two of the lowest courses of the building remain visible in places, and the rest is concealed by ruins. The interior has probably been cleared of debris, and there the wall exists to a height of 7'4". There are no signs of chambers in the walls, nor of galleries, the building is poor, the stones are not carefully selected and laid, and the numerous interstices are packed with small angular fragments. (RCAHMS 1911)
Listed as a broch. (A Graham 1949)
Visited by OS (C F W) 9 September 1960; RCAHMS 1911; A Graham 1949.
"An Dun": A well-preserved circular dun 6.9m in diameter internally. The wall varies in thickness between 3.1m at the entrance and 3.6m in the W arc, and is battered internally and externally. The entrance passage in the SSE is 0.7m wide contracting to 0.6m at its inner extremity; 1.1m along its W side from the inner end, 0.7m long, leading at right angles into the wall core, a fragment of built walling is suggestive of the entrance to a guard chamber. There is no indication of any other intra-mural features.
Visited by OS (J M) 14 August 1974.
This dun or broch is as described by the previous authorities except that the stonework is not remarkably poor. Its circularity, relative lack of natural defensiveness, and the proportion of the wall thickness to the overall diameter are features encountered in most brochs, and the quantity of tumble is commensurate with a wall of considerable height. Reservations on it being a broch are caused by its small size, and absence of evidence of intra-mural chambers. On balance it is more likely to be a broch. (See also NC23SW 1)
Visited by OS (J B) 14 August 1980.
