North Uist, Eilean Nan Carnan, Dun Na Dise
Dun (Prehistoric)
Site Name North Uist, Eilean Nan Carnan, Dun Na Dise
Classification Dun (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Baleshare
Canmore ID 10255
Site Number NF86SW 15
NGR NF 8072 6172
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10255
- Council Western Isles
- Parish North Uist
- Former Region Western Isles Islands Area
- Former District Western Isles
- Former County Inverness-shire
NS86SW 15 8072 6172.
(NF 8072 6172) Dun na Dise (NR)
OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)
Dun na Dise is a rocky islet at the NE end of Eilean nan Carnan, to which it is joined at half-tide. The islet has a flat summit with naturally scarped sides which rise abruptly 12 to 15ft above the beach. From SW to W the wall remains to its original thickness of 8 1/2 to 12ft, with an entrance passage on the W. Elsewhere the wall is greatly damaged and on the N and E is absent. The dun was about 45ft across its interior N-S by 60ft from E-W, and may have been a broch.
Finds consisted of a few sherds of pottery and a portion of shaped pumice.
E Beveridge 1911.
The remains of the dun are generally as described by Beveridge. It is roughly pear-shaped, measuring 20.0m NE- SW by 14.0m transversely. The wall exists in the SW as a stony bank c. 4.0m wide with an internal height of c. 0.9m: elsewhere the outer wall-face can only be traced intermittently. The narrow entrance is in the SW. The interior is covered with grass-covered stones but no foundations could be made out. Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (W D J) 13 June 1965.
Field Visit (9 August 1915)
Dun na Dise, Baleshare Ford, Claddach Baleshare.
At the northern end of Eilean nan Carnan, a tidal island in the Baleshare Ford, about ¼ mile south-west of Claddach Baleshare, is a flat-topped, grass-covered rock, rising abruptly some 15 feet above the strand, and separated from the larger islet at half tide. It is occupied by the remains of Dun na Dise, the wall of which has for the greater part either been removed or undermined and dislodged by the tides. On the southern arc facing the larger islet, where the natural escarpment is of less height, and not subjected so much to the action of the tides, two courses of large blocks of stone remain in position forming a regular curve. This wall is 9 feet in thickness, and towards the south-south-west shows indications of an entrance about 3 feet 9 inches wide. The plat inside the southern arc of the wall is irregularly oval on plan and measures some 63 feet from north-east to south-west and some 45 feet across. There are indications of buildings in the interior.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 9 August 1915.
OS map: North Uist xxxix.
