Archaeology Notes

Event ID 695472

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695472

NR45SE 15 4707 5029

(NR 4707 5028) An Dun (NR)

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

An Dun [NR]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1981.

(East coast). Dun, Ardmore. From the flat ground at the head of the rock-girt bay at Port na Cille a mass of rock rises vertically about 12ft [3.7m] on the landward side and 18ft [5.5m] from the water. A massive stone wall encircles its summit, with an over-all area of 66ft [20.1m] by 83ft [9.1m], clefts in the rock being carefully blocked by well-preserved walls. At the NE end, a built stair leads from the land through a cleft into the interior.

This dun is one of those 'admirably suited to be pirates' strongholds, with coves hidden in chasms of the rock where coracles might shelter.'

(This is one of the five duns that are noted in 3½ miles [5.6km] of coast between the E spur of Beinn Bheigeir and the SE corner of the island).

V G Childe 1935, no. 6.

'An Dun': A dun encompassing the highest ground on a rocky stack, and measuring some 15.0m, NE-SW by 8.5m over a ragged sparse bank of overgrown wall rubble; a stretch of outer-facing base course is visible on the north-west, and in the east corner is a probable inner-facing slab; the entrance must have been in the north-east end.

Entry to the plateau of the stack is up the north-east side by a setting of five boulders to form rough steps. The top step intrudes on a linear scatter of stones lying WNW-ESE which appears to be the remains of a horned outwork. At the bottom of the stack, two vulnerable clefts in the rock, one on the south-east the other on the north, are separately walled across for protection.

This walling is the best preserved feature of the site and stands to over 1.0m high in both instances.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (JM) 19 March 1979; (undated) information from RCAHMS.