Archaeology Notes

Event ID 695280

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695280

NR46NW 10 4164 6578

NR 4165 6578) Dun Bhoraraic (NR)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)

(East coast). Dun Bhoraraic broch, on a summit 550ft [168m] above OD and 3/4 of a mile from shorwe, commanding a superb view up the Sound of Islay to Colonsay and Mull, across the island to Loch Indall [Loch Indal], the Rhinns and ireland, and down the Sound to Kintyre.

The entrance on the SE is well preseved, the passage being 13ft [3.96m] long and 2ft 4ins [0.71m] wide at each end, but widening out at [the] centre. To the left is a cell, entered at the door-passage. The corbelling of the roof is visible though the capstones have fallen in and the floor is choked with stones; [the] dimensions above these [are] 8ft [2.4m] by 4ft 6ins [1.4m]. The court is choked with fallen stones and [the] exact diameter is uncertain.

The outer face of the tower wall on the SW has fallen down the precipice, but elsewhere its base at least is well preserved. In the thickness of the wall on the left (SW) side are traces of the stair. A little further round a passage leads to a cell, the corbelled inner wall of which is exposed by the collapse of the outer wall.

A signal station with concrete piles has been built over the broch wall on the S (left). There are no certain traces of outworks.

V G Childe 1935, no. 1.

Dun Bhoraraic a broch (MacKie 1975; Newall 1965) stands on top of a low hill (619ft OD). It measures 36ft in diameter E-W by about 30ft within a wall some 13ft thick. The entrance is visible in the SE, with what appears to be a guard cell on its left. Childe notes traces of the stair in the wall in the SW, also a mural cell.The broch is well preserved though largely hidden under its own rubble (MacKie 1975). A signal station with concrete piles has been built over the broch wall on the S. There is no certain traces of outworks (Childe 1935).

V G Childe 1935; F Newall 1965; E W MacKie 1975.

Dun Bhoraraic (name confirmed), a broch prominently situated on a hill summit. It measures 13.5m internal diameter within a deformed wall 4.8m to 5.5m wide, which is largely obscured by its own tumble. The entrance has been partially cleared of stones, and displays a door check and guard cell; a further mural cell is exposed in the south-west arc. There is no trace of the stair noted by Childe, but what may be the face of a first floor gallery can be seen in the west arc. The footings of a recent mortared building (the signal station mentioned by Childe) overlay the broch on its east side.

The broch is further defended by natural slopes to the NW, SW and NE; on the latter side it appears that the base of the slope has been cut back to the living rock, and the spoil deposited outwards to form a ditch and sinuous outer bank up to 1.2m. high. There are traces of outer ramparts to the NW and SE of the broch, but these survive as low bands of rubble of indeterminate width.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (N K B) 5 April 1979.