Archaeology Notes
Date - 1977
Event ID 651234
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651234
NC82SE 11 8989 2498.
(NC 8989 2498) Dun (NR)
OS 6"map, (1963)
A dun was discovered during field investigation.
Visited by OS (W D J) 30 May 1961; Visible on RAF air photograph 106G/Scot/UK 164: 4234-5
Situated on the flattened summit of a low knoll separated from the hill behind by a natural gully, and some 15 - 20m above the river plain, are the fragmentary remains of a circular stone-walled fortification. It measures approximately 17.0m in overall diameter, but it has been so comprehensively robbed that most of the wall is reduced to a heather-covered stony scarp. Only on the E side is there a counterscarp bank remaining, 5.0m wide and 0.8m high; the content seems to be of stones suitable for building, with an admixture of earth. Two, possibly three stones around the perimeter are probably footings of the outer face.
The knoll has been scarped all round to provide an outer defence which is the most obvious part of the work. It takes the form of an outer bank on the S side, a narrow terrace on the N and W sides, and in the E is the afore-mentioned natural gully. The entrance is not visible, but there is an obvious line of approach from the N.
Despite its poor state of preservation, it is possible that this feature is a broch as evidenced by its size, shape and position on a reasonably defensive site over-looking cultivable land. It was probably robbed to build the minor deserted settlement to the NE (see M), and the 'post-Clearances' field wall to the E.
Revised at 1/10,000
Visited by OS (N K B) 22 February 1977
