Archaeology Notes

Event ID 651031

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651031

NC75SW 11 7265 5188

(NC 7265 5188) Dun Viden (NAT) Broch (NR)

OS 6" map, (1964)

The remains of a broch (RCAHMS 1911; PSAS 1958; OS {JLD}) or dun (Young 1964), now a tumbled mass of stones, 1.5m high, within which wall faces, intermittently visible, give an internal diameter of about 9.5m and a wall thickness of 4.8m. The entrance 0.3m high and 1.1m wide is clearly defined in the SE. Steep slopes defend the site on the west but there are outworks on the other three sides - remains of a rampart on the north and south, and a rampart, ditch and outer stony bank on the east. A barbed and socketed iron arrow-head, found outside the broch, was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland [NMAS] by Miss A S Henshall in 1955-6. (Acc. No. GA 1265). There is also a flint from the site in the museum (Acc. No. AB 2655). Miss Young's reasons for classing this site as a dun are the inferior stonework and the small outer courtyard with stone walling supplementing the natural rock. She admits that it could be classed as a late broch.

Visited by OS (J L D) 6 May 1960.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1958; A Young 1964.

Dun Viden: a broch and outworks on an old river terrace. Generally as described except that the broch wall varies in thickness from 4.2m minimum to 5.3m maximum. The approach to the broch entrance is trenched with remains of a flanking wall on the north-east side. A later

footing occupies the south-west end of the ditch.

Revised at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (J M), 8 December 1978.