Archaeology Notes

Event ID 695758

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695758

NR73SE 4 7975 3402.

(NR 7975 3402) Fort (NR)

OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1924)

On a steep-sided rocky knoll 12m high, situated a few metres inland from high-water mark at Rubha nan Sgarbh, there is a dun measuring internally 27.5m in length by 10.5m in maximum width. The dun has been defended by a wall 3.7m in thickness, of which one stretch of the inner face and several stretches of the outer face are preserved in situ as shown on the plan. In some places the outer facing-stones lie as much as 2.1m below the margin of the summit area, while at one point on the NNE the wall is carried across a natural cleft in the knoll on a foundation of stones 5m in depth.

The entrance, which is on the E is well preserved and measures 1.5m in width. Originally access to it was gained by means of a gully which leads up to the steep ESE flank of the knoll, but at the present time the gully is choked with tumbled debris and terminates in a sheer drop of 3m to the shore below. The interior of the dun is featureless.

Part of the flat upper stone of a rotary quern found in the debris of the wall on the date of visit is now in Campbeltown Museum.

RCAHMS 1971, visited 1960.

The dun is as described and planned by RCAHMS (1971).

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (JB) 24 Febr

NR 7975 3402 Site identified as part of a coastal zone assessment survey.

M Cressey, S Badger, 2005.