Archaeology Notes

Event ID 663950

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/663950

NH79NW 18 7288 9832.

(NH 7288 9832) Enclosure (NR)

OS 6" map, (1969)

A fortified enclosure, comprising three lines of defence supplemented by an outer trench in the N (sic).

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1911.

A robbed dun on the summit of a knoll called Torri Falaig. The remains are so slight and overgrown that it is difficult to determine if it has a close concentric outwork, or if it is simply a single strong walled structure.

The almost level oval summit area measures 29.0m E-W by 16.0m N-S. Edging it, particularly in the S, is a turf-covered band of rubble spread to c.2.5m. Edging the rim in the W are three contiquous stones which look to be of an outer wall face but their position on the lip is suspicious and their purpose is uncertain. On the slopes below and at a distance of

c.5.0m from this debris are a few intermittent boulders of an outer wall face. The impression gained round much of the periphery is that these represent the outer face of the main wall itself, which if so would be c.5.0m thick, but in the SE where the face is best preserved, the impression is that it is the outer face of a distinctly separate wall. In the interior c.4.0m inside the lip of the summit in the NW is a curving band of rubble c.11.0m long and spread to 3.0m. This looks as if it could be the main dun wall but its position suggests it is the result of mutilations. The entrance is not evident but was presumably in the E at the point of easiest approach.

The alleged outer defence encircling the hillock is with little doubt comparatively recent. It is a collapsed stone wall and can be seen to have been no more than 1.0m thick. The outer trench in the S is a natural watercourse.

Resurveyed at 1/10,560.

Visited by OS (W D J) 5 April 1964 and (J M) 14 May 1975.