Archaeology Notes

Event ID 675396

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/675396

NM92NW 3 9286 2836.

(NM 9286 2836) An Dun (NAT) Fort (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

This dun is situated on the top of an isolated knoll. It was excavated in 1967 by the Lorn Archaeol Soc (1969) and the results of this are incorporated into the RCAHMS's report (RCAHMS 1975). Oval on plan, the dun measures about 29 by 21 metres within a wall of which little now remains other than a low grass-grown stony bank through which a few outer-facing stones protrude on the east and south-west. The entrance was in the SSE where the wall on either side was 2.5 metres thick. The entrance itself was 1.8 metres wide but there are no signs of its having been checked for a door. The wall reached its greatest thickness on the west side where it was up to 4.6 metres thick. The foundations of a small rectangular building, clearly secondary, can be seen in the western portion of the interior. The only relics recovered during the excavation were fragments of two flat rotary-querns which had been incorporated into the lower course of the dun wall.

Lorn Archaeol Soc 1969; RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1968.

The plan, size and construction suggest this is a fort rather than a dun. The name An Dun is still used locally.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (R D) 8 October 1969.

On the east side, and partly overlying the wall, there is possibly a secondary work comprising a circular enclosure about 11 metres internal diameter, with a wall spread of from 3 to 4 metres and a height of 0.2 metres. A break in the west arc may indicate the entrance.

Visited by OS (J L D) 25 April 1972.