Archaeology Notes

Event ID 675680

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/675680

NM82SE 1 8685 2493.

(NM 8685 2493) Dun (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

The remains of a dun occupy the highest point of a tree-covered ridge situated close to the shore at the east end of Loch Feochan, ENE of Dunach House. The site is almost impregnable on the east and west due to the sheer rock-faces up to 18 metres in height, but on the south the immediate approach is over more gently sloping ground. To the north, the line of cliffs is broken by a natural grassy ramp.

The dun wall has been severely reduced by stone-robbing and tree-planting and now appears as a low band of rubble from 1.5 to 2.7 metres wide enclosing a roughly oval area measuring 11.6 by 14.3 metres. No facing stones are visible. Of the two gaps in the wall debris, that on the NNW almost certainly represents an original entrance while that on the east was probably caused by recent disturbance.

On the south, where a broad shelf slopes gently down from the dun to the shore, additional defence has been provided by an arc of walling drawn across the ridge from E-W, but all that remains of this is a moss-grown spread of stony debris 3 metres in maximum width and 0.3 metres in height. The quarries from which the core material was probably obtained can be seen as shallow scoops lying immediately within the line of the wall.

A short stretch of stony bank situated on the edge of the cliff about 13 metres north of the dun suggests that this side also was defended by an outwork.

RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1967.

As described. The rubble debris of the outwork on the north could not be identified.

Surveyed at 1:10 000 scale.

Visited by OS (W D J) 18 November 1969.