Field Visit
Date 10 August 1914
Event ID 928842
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/928842
Dun Torcuill
On an island about 35 yards south-east of a promontory on the west side of Loch an Duin, some 3 ¾ miles north-west of Lochmaddy, is Dun Torcuill, which though dilapidated is still the best example of a broch on North Uist. The island is connected the shore by a broad causeway, never less than 6 feet in width, which, springing from mass of rock at the end of the promontory, extends east and south in a fine curve, advantage being taken of a rock which rises above the loch about midway in its course.
The broch, built of good drystone masonry, occupies the south-east and larger portion of the island. The walls have a slight inward batter and reach to a height of 9 feet on the north-west, and about 10 ½ feet on the south. They vary considerably in thickness from 7 ½ feet at the north and south-west to 10 feet at the east and 12 ½ feet at the west-north-west, where an entrance passage, now much broken down and obscured by fallen debris, shows a width of 3 ¾ feet at its internal extremity. The interior of the broch, which is roughly circular with a diameter of 38 feet, is filled to a depth of about 4 feet with stones obscuring all entrances to internal structures. On the northern arc access to a portion of a ground-level gallery, of which some 15 feet is fairly clear of debris, is now gained only through a hole in the roof. This gallery is set almost midway in the thickness of the wall and is approximately 2 ½ feet wide at the floor and 2 feet wide at the roof, which apparently formed the floor of an upper gallery, of which a short section of the inner wall remains to a height of about 4 feet. In the southeast segment of the wall there has been a stair, 2 feet 8 inches wide, with its outer wall showing a thickness of 4 feet 3 inches, and the inner wall 2 feet 4 inches. In the south-west segment there has been an oval-shaped chamber 18 feet long, 3 feet wide and 4 feet 10 inches in height.
Immediately adjoining the main construction, and occupying the north-western part of the island, are three annexes of irregular shape and apparently of later construction. The walls of these annexes are 4 ½ feet thick, but they are clearly built of re-used stones and the character of the masonry is different from that of the broch construction. That they had nothing to do with the main construction is shown by the fact that an annexe wall starts from the broch entrance, which it completely closes. There are traces of even earlier foundations within the annexes. The structures suggest in their layout that, at the time they were built, the broch was already ruinous and, therefore, deserted.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 10 August 1914
OS map: xxxi
