Archaeology Notes

Event ID 658269

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/658269

NG37SE 2 3598 7002

(NG 3598 7002) Dun Liath (NR)

OS 6" map, (1966)

Dun Liath, a galleried dun, occupying the summit of a rocky ridge with natural defences on the N, E and W, and an approach by a gradual rise on the S.

The enceinte measures 150' by 80' within a wall 8' - 12' thick and galleried on the N, E, and S but only about 5' thick on the W where it is now almost obliterated. It still stands about 6' high on the S, and considerable lengths of the lower courses of the outer face remain in position on the E in which side the entrance has been. A hut circle 6' in internal diameter lies 10' within the S wall.

An outer defence in the shape of a line of large stones set on end follows an intermittent low outcrop of rock across the approach at a distance of from 15' to 19' from the dun, and Feachem mentions a row of earthfast stones like a diminutive 'chevaux de frise' outside the dun on the S.

At a distance of about 100' from the dun on the land-ward side Mackie notes a stone wall - "almost certainly an outer defence" - crossing a broad flat depression. It has a vertical face only on the side away from the dun with whose wall it runs parallel. It terminates in a marsh at one end and in a steep declivity leading down to the beach at the other. The dun was excavated by Mackie during 1964-5 and pottery sherds from a secondary domestic context compare with the characteristic pottery of the pre-broch fort levels at Clickhimin (HU44SE 2). A polished stone macehead from the stie is in Dundee Museum (Accession No: 1956-370).

RCAHMS 1928; R W Feachem 1963; E W MacKie 1965; H Coutts 1971.

On size Dun Liath must be regarded as a galleried fort. It is generally as planned by the RCAHMS, but the recent excavation has revealed that a corbelled cell, entered from within the fort, lied immediately S of the entrance. A line of stones between this and the entrance appears to be a medial stabilising wall. A stone abutting from the N side of the entrance passage may be a door jamb but there is no sign of a corresponding one on the S side, although there are indications that the outside part of the entrance passage has been rebuilt. The alleged hut circle within the fort is fortuitous tumble.

The row of stones, like a chevaux de frise according to Feachem, are 1.0m outside and parallel to the galleried wall in the S. Three in number, they are about 0.4m high and 0.2m wide.

The outer defence noted by RCAHMS is more likely to be the remains of the wall of an earlier fort. All that survives is the intermittent outer face of earthfast boulders about 6.0m outside the SE and S arcs of the galleried wall.

Below and about 9.0m outside the galleried wall in the NE is another wall about 2.5m average width and 29.0m long. This wall and another further to the E (described by Mackie as a contemporary outer defence) are undoubtedly associated with the remains of depopulated buildings and enclosures around the NE, SE and S arc of the fort.

Visited by OS (I S S) 15 September 1971.