Archaeology Notes

Event ID 695814

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695814

NR72NE 5 7806 2778.

(NR 7804 2778) Fort (NR).

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

A well-preserved dun, crowning a rocky knoll and measuring 19.2m by 13.1m within a wall 1.5m to 4.3m thick, composed of a rubble core faced with boulders, and having an internal revetment. For a distance of 5.5m south of the entrance in the SW, this revetment is replaced by a narrow, curving gallery open at both ends. The inner face of the wall is set at a higher level than the outer and on the north stands to its original height of a little over 2.1m, but elsewhere is only about 1.2m high. The outer face exhibits a marked batter and is now 2.4m in maximum height but it may originally have been 3.7m high at the entrance, and as much as 4.6m in places along the east side. The entrance, 1.65m to 2.59m wide is paved and provided with door-checks and bar-holes.

From the interior of the dun a short passage on the NE leads to a mural cell which has lost its corbelled roof; and another opening on the west gives access to twin staircases built against the internal revetment. Excavations between 1936 and 1938 indicated that there had been several occupations and modern excavations at comparable sites indicate a primary occupation in the late first or early second centuries AD. Kerbed hearths and what were thought to be the foundations of small huts were associated with this period and among the finds was a single, small sherd of samian. A 9th century bronze penannular brooch indicated Dark Age occupation and the site was again re-occupied between the late 12th and early 14th centuries. In final phase, which cannot be dated, the interior of the dun appears to have been adapted for use as a stock enclosure.

H Fairhurst 1939; RCAHMS 1971, visited 1960.

The dun is as described and illustrated by the previous authorities.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (JB) 8 November 1977.

Sounding below Fairhurst's Period II Hearth 2 (vide PSAS 1939) in order to recover assays for C14 dating yielded quantities of charcoal, part of an iron knife, a mica schist disc, two socketed stones (mortars) and a paved area attributable to the first phase of occupation.

E Peltenburg and F Hood 1979.

NR 7806 2778 Site identified as part of a coastal zone assessment survey.

M Cressey, S Badger, 2005.