Archaeology Notes

Event ID 675504

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/675504

NM83NW 5 8113 3768.

(NM 8113 3768) An Dun (NAT) Broch (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

On the NE end of a ridge immediately to the east of, and overlooking, Loch Fiart are the remains of what was probably a broch. The steep sides of the ridge afford strong, natural protection except in the NE and SW. The remains now consist of a heavy band of grass-grown rubble representing the core material of a substantial wall. This stands to a height of 1.2 metres above the interior and encloses a roughly circular area of about 13 metres diameter. Round the NW of the perimeter, some stretches of the outer face of the wall are visible reaching a maximum height of 0.8 metres. Only in the West, where the wall is about 4.9 metres thick, are there visible inner facing stones. The entrance is on the NE, but only one of the side-slabs of the passage can be seen. Within the thickness of the wall on the West side, a narrow, lintelled gallery, 0.4 metres wide, can be traced for a distance of 6 metres. To protect the entrance, additional defences were drawn across the ridge on the north, cutting off a flat shelf some 4.6 metres below the main structure. The remains of a wall run round the perimeter of this shelf, broken by a wide gap in line with the entrance to the broch. A further platform, about 2 metres below the level of this shelf has been bordered by a wall, now reduced to stony debris, and also with an entrance gap at its east end.

RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1968.

As described. There are slight traces of a possible ditch to the south. Name confirmed.

Surveyed at 1:10 000 scale.

Visited by OS (R D) 20 November 1971.