Archaeology Notes

Event ID 649491

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/649491

NC46NW 4 4415 6599

(NC 4415 6599) Over a natural arch is a causeway defended by two lines of boulders. On the promontory are two buildings - rectangular. The SW edge of the promontory may have been delimited by a wall.

Information from Dr C S Sandeman, Durness, 14 March 1967.

The promontory is approached by a natural causeway about 15ft wide over a natural arch. At the W end six boulders have been set upright in the earth. Sixteen feet to the E of the boulders the causeway is 9ft wide. On the promontory is a sub-rectangular structure, with a rectangular structure about 33ft to the E.

Information contained in letter and field notes from K Reid to OS 25 September 1978.

A cliff-girt promontory accessible from the landward side by a natural causeway over a natural arch. A line of earthfast angular boulders block the approach, and on the causeway itself an embedded, transverse slab may indicate a further blocking wall. On the promontory are footings of a rectangular structure measuring an estimated 8.5m by 5.0m within a wall 1.2m thick; a short distance to the E among rock outcrops are traces of a small, possibly circular structure. Along the SW side of the promontory and round the NW, stone showing in an eroded scarp indicates a skirting wall. It is unlikely that this is a fort in view of vulnerability from the NE where the cliffs give way to shelving rock. This could well be a monastic settlement and it may not be coincidental that a monastic site (NC46NW 5) is clearly viewed to the W.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (J M) 23 April 1980.