Archaeology Notes

Event ID 701558

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/701558

NS31SW 5 3477 1248

(NS 3477 1248) Dun (NR)

OS 6" map (1958)

This dun (Feachem) or fort (Smith) which Smith suggests is probably the original Dun Ree (Dunree: farm name at NS 349 128) occupies a conspicuous, flat-topped hill, 442ft OD. The summit of the knoll is surrounded by a grass-grown stony bank, up to 6ft in height and spread to a thickness of 20ft. It encloses an area 120ft by 100ft with an entrance in the WSW. The slight remains of two outer defences over the approach from the N. It is probable that the main wall was originally 10ft or 12ft. thick, but no precise measurements are available. Christison notes "some shapeless little mounds in the S half of the interior, and a large artificial-looking mound at the foot of the site to the E".

R W Feachem 1963; D Christison 1893; J Smith 1895

A small near-circular fort, generally as described, with two stony ramparts and the suggestion of a third around the N. There are indications of what may be huts within the interior.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JLD) 8 December 1955 and (RD) 12 September 1968

The size and form of this work confirms it as a fort and not a dun. The principal rampart, with a single entrance and a later break in the NE, has a distinct internal quarry ditch, up to 0.4m deep, within most of its circuit. The second rampart is in fact a continuous terrace averaging 4.0m wide with a scarp up to 1.5m high but with no trace of a wall or ditch. This may be an unfinished defence together with another 10m. length of scarp, 0.5m high, on the outer N side.

The interior shows the amorphous undulations of occupation but no distinct levels or trace of timber/stone structures was identified. Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (JRL) 17 October 1980