Archaeology Notes

Event ID 672958

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/672958

NL58SW 1 54779 82322.

(NL 5477 8230) Dun Mingulay (NAT) Fort (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, 1971.

Promontory Fort, Dun Mingulay: It is defended by a stone wall built across the end of the peninsula facing the approaching ridge. The wall has for the most part disappeared, but in one place shows an outer face of dry-stone building standing some 3' in height.

RCAHMS 1928.

Dun Mingulay, a promontory fort situated at the SW tip of Mingulay, is defended by high sheer cliffs on three sides, and by a grass-covered dry-stone wall, c. 1.6m thick, built across the NE end of the peninsula. The outer face of the wall is visible along the whole of its length to a maximum height of 1.6m, but only a vague trace of the inner wall face remains. The entrance, about 1.0m wide, appears to be at the S end of the wall.

A grass-covered earthen bank, 4.5m wide and 0.8m high extends 20.0m in a NW direction from the inner face of the wall at a point midway between the N and S ends, but this appears to be a secondary feature.

Surveyed at 1:10560.

Visited by OS (N K B) 20 May 1965.

Centred NL 545 820: On the S slopes of Dun Mingulay are several unclassifiable structures. The best preserved is an oval cell measuring internally 3.0m by 2.2m within 3 courses of corbelled walling. Other structures include a 3-sided structure about 1.5m square and two wall-courses high; also the remains of another oval cell and several amorphous piles of stones.

These structures are all situated in exposed positions and cannot be related to each other, or to the dun.

Visited by OS (D W R) 29 August 1973.

Dun Mingulay is a large, precipitous promontory fort on the SW coast of Mingulay that is cut off by a drystone wall. The wall traverses the seaward side of the narrow neck linking the promontory to the island, exploiting the defensive qualities of a low cliff some 4m in height, which tails off into a steep scarp towards the S. The wall itself is relatively narrow, measuring little more than 1m in thickness where both faces are visible at its N end, but up to five courses of the outer face are visible where it steps up the scarp to the edge of the low cliff. Several small pens can be seen within the interior (NL58SW 12), which extends to about 20 ha.

MING03 360

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 26 June 2003

The fort was investigated during an outing organised by the Schools Hebridean Society in 1971. The grass-covered drystone wall to the NE was said to be 1.6m wide and 30m long, running along the peninsula. It was noted that the US Navy had used the site as a training camp and there was a lot of rubbish on the site, some of it buried in shallow holes.

A MacLean Philips 1972