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North Uist, Caisteal Odair

Cairn (Period Unknown), Enclosure (Period Unknown), Promontory Fort (Prehistoric)

Site Name North Uist, Caisteal Odair

Classification Cairn (Period Unknown), Enclosure (Period Unknown), Promontory Fort (Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 10074

Site Number NF77NW 8

NGR NF 7317 7680

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10074

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Western Isles
  • Parish North Uist
  • Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
  • Former District Western Isles
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

NF77NW 8 7317 7680.

(NF 7317 7680) Caisteal Odair (NR)

OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Caisteal Odair - promontory fort (R W Feachem 1963). Its defences consist of a stone rampart c.120 yards long and 7 to 9ft thick which cuts off the outer and higher portion of the headland. This wall can still be traced along its 'exterior base' and is pierced towards the south by an entrance passage 14ft long and 5ft wide, partially blocked at its inner end by a group of large stones, some still standing. North of these and close to the outer rampart are the ruins of structures. (E Beveridge 1911)

The remains of several circular stone foundations lie outside the fortified area but nothing is known about their connection with the fort. (R W Feachem 1963)

E Beveridge 1911; R W Feachem 1963.

Caisteal Odair is generally as described above. The only foundation visible outside the fort is an oval enclosure of no great age.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (J T T) 21 June 1965.

Activities

Field Visit (29 July 1914)

Promontory Fort, Caisteal Odair.

At the extreme north-western corner of North Uist is an elevated, rocky promontory, Caisteal Odair, bounded on the south-west by a gully, Geo a Chaisteil, the walls of which rise 50 feet sheer from the water, and by a smaller gully on the north-east. The promontory is bounded by lofty precipices, except on the south-east or landward side, where it has been defended by a stone rampart commencing on the edge of the cliff to the south-west and curving round towards the north-east about 25 feet higher than the neck connecting it with the land. The rampart measures about 120 yards in length, and what remains shows a width of some 9 feet and a height of 1 ½ feet at most; towards the north-eastern end it entirely disappears after taking a sharp turn to the north, the grassy slope between it and the cliff at this part being very steep. Possibly it may have been made with a bifurcation at this extremity.

Some 33 yards from the south-western end is the entrance, which, in its course through the wall, curves slightly towards the east and measures 15 feet in length, 5 feet 2 inches wide at the outer end and 4 feet 9 inches at the inner end. The foundation stones of the wall on both sides of the passage are still in position, and for 20 yards to the east of the entrance the outer foundation course of the wall is traceable. The walls on both sides of the entrance passage run into the outer line of the rampart in a fine, regular curve. A slab of stone 4 feet8 inches in length lies at the mouth of the passage, and immediately to the east of its water inner end are two erect slabs and a large boulder, the largest of the erect stones reaching a height of 4 feet 3 inches above ground.

Some 36 feet east of the gateway, inside the rampart, is a much dilapidated hut circle 9 feet in diameter, and 33 feet further on is amass of tumbled stones, probably the remains of other hut circles, covering a space 55 feet in length and extending about 14 feet from the inside of the rampart. Connecting the upper edge of the hut circle with the tumbled stones at a distance of 18 feet up the hill from the outer rampart are the remains of a stone wall.

On the highest point of the promontory, which rises about 25 feet higher than the wall, is a small cairn of stones 15 feet in diameter and 1 ½ feet in height.

At the foot of the grassy slope outside the rampart of the fort and some 20 yards distant is a crescentic hollow excavated in the hillside with a slight mound in front of it, forming an oval enclosure 28 feet in length and 10 feet in breadth.

RCAHMNS 1928, visited 29 July 1914

OS map: North Uist xxix.

Note (9 January 2015 - 18 May 2016)

This fort is situated on a precipitous promontory to the ENE of Griminish Point on the NW corner of North Uist. Bounded on both the NE and SW by cliffs dropping into deep chasms running out to the sea on the NW, the seaward side of the saddle that forms the neck is defended by a single wall drawn in a shallow arc eastwards from the cliff-edge on the SW to peter out on a steep slope above the cliffs on the NE; up to 2.7m in thickness, the wall is some 120m in length and the interior measures about 130m from NW to SE by 80m transversely (0.09ha). The entrance pierces the wall towards the SW end in a shallow curve to form a passage 4.5m in length by 1.5m in breadth, and when described by RCAHMS investigators in 1914 it not only retained the foundations of its faces on either side, but they turned outwards at the outer end to pick up the line of the outer face; the latter could then be traced eastwards for almost 20m. The inner end of the passageway is partly blocked now with boulders, but at the time that the RCAHMS account was written two of these stood upright to the E of the passage, the taller being some 1.3m high. A rectilinear structure about 3m across internally has been built against the inner edge of the wall to the E of the entrance, and what may be a small pen has been constructed in the saddle on the SE.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2669

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