North Uist, Loch Caravat, Dun Scor

Dun Scor, Loch Caravat.

In the northern part of Loch Caravat, about 2 ½ miles south-east of Clachan a Luib, is an islet marked Dun Scor on the O.S. map [NF86SW 18]. No traces of defences are noticeable on this site, but on the eastern side is a small boat harbour running some 18 feet into the island, with a width of some 6 feet. The adjoining island some 80 yards to the south-west, named Eilean Dubh Dun Scor on O.S. map, is apparently the fort proper [NF86SW 19]. This dun lies some 150 yards south of a small promontory on the northern shore of the loch, and about 70 yards west of a larger islet, to which its south-western end is connected by a partly submerged S-shaped causeway about 3 feet broad on the top. This westerly island is joined to the northern shore of the loch by a short causeway standing clear of the water, and to the southern shore by a longer causeway submerged for the greater part of its length. (Fig. 118.)

The island occupied by the dun is of irregular, oval outline, measuring about 200 feet in length from north-north-east to south-south-west and some 127 feet across at the widest part, and it rises in places about 12 feet above the water. It has been defended by a stone wall built round its irregular margin. This wall, though for the greater part reduced to a height of some 3 feet above the water, is in a much better state of preservation than in the average Hebridean dun, and in places reaches a height of 5 feet. Many of the stones are very large. The best preserved portion lies to the north-east of the island end of the causeway, and one section some 17 feet in length shows a height of from 5 to 6 feet on the outside, and some 3 feet on the inside; on the summit it is 2 feet 6 inches thick and lower down it is considerably thicker. There are three entrances to the dun ,two near the southern end of the north-western flank and one near the northern end of the south-eastern side. Of the former, the first is placed 18 feet 6 inches north-east of the causeway, and with a width varying from 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet slants through the wall slightly towards the south; the second, some 4 feet in breadth, goes straight through the wall some 22 feet 6 inches north-east of the first. The entrance at the opposite end of the dun seems to have been a water-gate for a boat, as there is a slight excavation inside the wall extending some 13 feet from the outside over a width of 8 to 10 feet.

Within the wall, opposite the causeway, there are indeterminate stone foundations hid by a covering of heather, royal ferns, bramble and honeysuckle, and a few feet above the water-gate are indications of further building.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 2 August 1915.

OS map: North Uist xl.