Field Visit
Date 27 February 2014
Event ID 980145
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/980145
The remains of this dun stand on very low knoll on a promontory formed by the steep face of a raised beach on the WNW, a deep stream gully on the N and a shallower one on the E; to the S there is a broad terrace the cultivation of which has resulted in the truncation of the foot of the knoll on that side.
The dun measures about 17m in diameter over a wall that has been very heavily robbed of its stone and has largely been reduced to a grass grown stony bank of up to 5.5m in thickness and 0.8m in height. The only facing stones visible on the date of visit were those comprising a short row exposed on the WNW. The interior of the dun appears to have been levelled to provide a platform on which there are the remains of an enclosure. Of irregular shape, it measures about 14m from NW to SE by 12.5m transversely within a stone wall 0.5m thick and only 0.2m high. It is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Ross-shire XLIII.1, 1880), though nothing is now visible of a second smaller enclosure shown immediately to the NNW.
At least six trenches have been excavated into the remains, probably within the past fifty years judging from the relative freshness of the cuts, one of which on the NW has been driven into the thickness of the dun wall from outside and another on the SE which slices through the enclosure wall. In addition to the truncation to the southern edge of the site by the plough, cultivation has also resulted in a considerable amount of field-cleared stones being dumped on the site, in places obscuring the detail of the underlying remains. At the edge of this clearance on the SW side of the dun there is the cupmarked boulder that was first identified by the OS in 1981.
Although the 1872 description of this site in the OS Name Book mentions a ‘low surrounding ditch’, none was depicted on the contemporary 1st edition 6-inch map (Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (Mainland) 1880, Sheet XLIII) and no trace of such a feature is visible today. Fragments of a slight bank, almost certainly of comparatively modern origin, are visible immediately E of the dun where it skirts the crest of the previously mentioned shallow stream gully.
Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, JRS, IP), 27 February 2014.
