Archaeology Notes

Event ID 664143

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/664143

NH84NW 5 8275 4757

(NH 8275 4757) Dun Evan (NAT) Vitrified Fort (NR)

OS 6" map, (1960)

Dun Evan, a fort with outworks, from which vitrifaction has been recorded (Feachem 1963). The oval fort occupies the fairly level summit of a steep-sided rocky hill and measures about 56.0m NE-SW by 23.0m within a turf-covered wall reduced to an average internal height of c. 0.4m, and spread to a maximum width of c. 10.0m. The entrance in the NE is ill-defined by a dip in the wall. Feachem records outer facing stones at the base of the debris outside the entrance, but these are no longer evident and no facing stones are visible at any point around the wall. No vitrifaction is visible, and none was noted in 1965, though the late Lord Cawdor informed OS (NKB) at that time that he had noted vitrifaction in the fort; the appearance of the wall and the small size of the tumbled stones suggests it was timber-laced.

Around the fort at a lower level is another wall which, except in the N, has tumbled down the slope, its course being marked by a stony terrace. In the SE the terrace is almost obliterated by tumble from the main fort wall and soil creep and is under dense scrub. A break c. 4.0m wide in the S may be an additional means of access through this outwork. In the N the outer wall face is visible intermittently to a height of three courses at the base of the debris, and the wall can be seen to widen from about 5.0m to at least 10.0m where it turns S to join additional heavy defences which protect the NE approach. The plan of these additional works is enigmatic as they are mutilated by trees, quarrying and minor excavations but the vast amount of debris and the larger size of the stones suggests that they were not timber-laced. They overlook the approach to the fort which is up a terrace c. 4.0m wide, which may be partly of modern construction. A circular depression c. 3.5m in diameter and 0.6m deep in the S part of the fort is noted by Feachem as the site of a well.

According to Wallace, pig and other animal bones and an arrowhead have been found within the fort.

Survey Plan Resurveyed at 1:2500 (OS [NKB] 19 November 1965).

Visited by OS (A A) 3 February 1971.

T Wallace 1921; R W Feachem 1963.

This fort, also known as the Doune of Cawdor, occupies the summit of a prominent crag. The defences belong to at least two phases, the earliest represented by a much ruined wall enclosing the summit platform, and the later by a wall which encloses a smaller part of the summit area. The fort has been given added protection by an outer wall and other short stretches of walling on the SW and NE.

RCAHMS 1978, visited April 1978.