Archaeology Notes

Event ID 662260

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/662260

NH63SW 49 6005 3165

(NH 6005 3165) Caisteal an Dunriachaidh (NAT)

Fort (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1905)

A fort, oval on plan, measuring 125' by 110' within a ruined stone wall some 10' thick, with an outer wall, at varying distances from it enclosing an area of 300' by 150'. Each wall has an entrance in the SW.

ISSFC 1885; R W Feachem 1963.

Caisteal an Dunriachaidh, a mutilated fort situated on an isolated ridge running NNE-SSW. It is protected in the E and SE by a cliff, and in the N and W by a rocky scarp, with the only easy access up an easy slope from the SW.

Feachem's (R W Feachem 1963) measurements cannot be verified as neither of the walls can be traced around the E side of the ridge. A quantity of tumble at the base of the cliff in the E, however, suggests that at least one of the walls originally formed a complete enclosure. Where best preserved in the SW, both walls are spread to c. 3.0m with the outer faces occasionally protruding through the tumble to a maximum height of 0.6m. No inner faces can be seen. The entrance through each wall in the SW, is partially blocked by tumble.

The defences have been supplemented in the NW at the base of the ridge by a ditch, and the spoil used to form an outer bank, now c. 0.6m high. Within the fort is a wet depression, possibly a cistern.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

(Visible on OS air photographs 67/198/008)

Visited by OS (NKB) 2 March 1970.

Heather burning has revealed traces of another wall barring the access in the SW, some seven metres out from the second wall. Only three vague fragments survive, the most NW portion showing three outer facing stones.

Visited by OS (AA) 16 April 1974.

Scheduled as 'Caisteal an Dunriachaidh, fort 1520m N of Achnabat... the remains of a small fort... on a rocky ridge, at a height of 260m above sea level, rising from Ashie Moor between Loch Ness and Loch Duntelchaig.'

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 16 July 2009.

Caisteal an Dunriachaidh

Fort (remains of) [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, August 2009.