Archaeology Notes

Event ID 651466

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651466

NC86NE 3 8670 6617.

(NC 8670 6617) Torran Buidhe (NAT). Fort (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6"map, Sutherland, 1st ed., (1873)

An Tornaidh Bhuidhe (NAT) Fort (NR)

OS 6"map, (1964)

A large peninsular rock on which there are traces of ruins. There are also remains of a wall and trench which cut off the rock from the land. At the N end the ground is slightly broken and some distance below the surface was found burnt bones, shells and charred wood.

Name Book 1873.

The remains of a promontory fort flanked by precipitous cliffs and approached along a ridge only two or three feet wide in places. The fort consists of a grassy plateau round the edge which runs an earthen rampart or parapet. Down the N face of the cliff is a ledge on which there is a depression but there is no trace of a passage such as that at Dun Mhairtein (NC86NE 1).

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

A cliff-castle.

R J Mercer 1981.

Occupying An Tornaidhe Bhuidhe, a cliff-girt peninsula approached from the S by a restricted arete, is a defensive or protective earthwork enclosing the summit area 47.0m N-S by 10.0m maximum transversely. Around the rim of the summit is a turf-covered bank, at its strongest protecting the approach from the S and along the W side, where it is 0.4m high and spread to a width of 2.0m; it is less strong on the E side and completely eroded on the N and NW. A content of earth and small stones is exposed in the eroded bank. No entrance gap is evident. The interior is largely occupied by a series of irregularly-shaped platforms, probably indicating the sites of buildings. Down the slope to the NE is a small shelf, apparently natural, with a slight bank constructed around the outer side. It may have been a look-out, perhaps later than the main work.

These much eroded remains may be of a promontory fort as stated by the RCAHMS, but it appears more likely to be a Celtic monastic settlement based on (1) the existence of what appear to be the stances for buildings in the interior, and (2) the form of the enclosing bank which appears protective in the manner of a 'vallum monasterii' rather than defensive as in the rampart of an Iron Age fort.

Revised at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (W D J) 3 May 1960 and (N K B) 28 July 1981.