Archaeology Notes

Event ID 674211

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/674211

NM45NE 1 4947 5527.

(NM 4947 5527) Dun Urgadul (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1976)

Dun, Dun Urgadul: On the W end of a prominent rocky ridge situated 800m W of Tobermory, and about 100m N of the road to Glengorm, there is a pear-shaped dun measuring 13m by 11m within a wall 3.7m thick. The N and S sides and the W end of the ridge are steeply inclined, rising up to 12m in height on the SW, but from the SE there is an easy approach up a gentle slope. The wall now appears as a grass-grown bank of debris standing up to 0.8m in height internally and 2.1m externally, in which stretches of both inner and outer facing-stones are visible as shown on the plan. For added stability the wall has been built in two thickness on the WNW, an interior revetment being exposed for a length of 4.3m. the entrance faces E and is about 0.9m wide.

To protect the vulnerable SE side of the dun, an outer wall has been drawn almost straight across the ridge from NNE to SSW. Originally this outwork must have been a massive structure, but it is now reduced to a low boulder-strewn scarp, at the SSW end of which a number of large outer facing-stones can be seen. There is no trace of an inner face and the position of the entrance is uncertain.

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1972

Dun Urgadul, a dun as described by the RCAHMS. Though MacNab (1970) refers to it as a vitrified fort, no evidence of vitrifaction was found.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (DWR) 20 April 1972