Archaeology Notes

Event ID 659270

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/659270

NG56SW 1 5032 6427.

(NG 5032 6427) Dun Raisaburgh (NR)

OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

At Raisaburgh, some 400 yards SSW of Loch Mealt, is a narrow rocky ridge running almost due N-S, and rising from 30' - 50' above the surrounding moorland. Near its S end, though not on the highest point, are the scanty remains of a broch. The wall is broken down on the E.side, but for the remaining part of its circumference the outer face is still traceable; the inner face is quite indistinguishable, being either destroyed or covered with debris. On the S two or three courses of the outer face remain, on the W only the foundation course is traceable, but on the N about 2' of building appears above the debris which has accumulated at the bottom of the wall to a depth of some two or three feet. The external diameter of the building, which is only measurable N-S, is 53'3". A length of 22' of gallery in the thickness of the wall on the N arc is clearly defined, its outer wall reaching a height of 3' in places. The entrance cannot be identified.

An outer defence crosses the ridge some 32'6" S of the main building. It takes the form of a stone wall some 6" thick, now practically reduced to the foundation. This wall appears to have returned northwards along the eastern edge of the ridge as far as the chief structure, but on the west side, which is higher and steeper at this part, there is no appearance of a wall. Some 25' N of the broch there are very faint indications of another outer wall across the ridge.

Listed as a Broch (Graham 1949).

RCAHMS 1928; A Graham 1949.

Dun Raisaburgh, a broch as described above. In poor condition.

Visited by OS (A S P) 25 April 1961.