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Sanday, Sean Dun
Enclosure(S) (Period Unassigned), Fort (Period Unassigned), Hut(S) (Period Unassigned), Stack Site (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery
Site Name Sanday, Sean Dun
Classification Enclosure(S) (Period Unassigned), Fort (Period Unassigned), Hut(S) (Period Unassigned), Stack Site (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery
Alternative Name(s) Dun Easubric; Greod; Suileabhaig; Canna
Canmore ID 10741
Site Number NG20SE 10
NGR NG 2811 0398
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10741
- Council Highland
- Parish Small Isles
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG20SE 10 2812 0397.
(NG 2823 0379) At Dun Easubric are remains of walling and an entrance, with two huts just outside and one inside. Another is to the E at the foot of the cliff.
Private 6"map, annotated by T C Lethbridge 1953.
(NG 2812 0397) A rock stack topped by three possible structures, one of which could be a dun, and a cross-wall. 'Sean Dun' on OS 6".
(Visible on RAF air photographs 106G/Scot/UK 53: 3069-70; flown 7 May 1946)
Lethbridge has mistaken Sean Dun for Dun Easubric. On Sean Dun a cliff girt plateau of rock at NG 2812 0397 is a fort with the remains of a hut circle inside. The irregular-shaped top of the plateau measures 80.0m NW-SSE by about 20.0m, with a wall about 2.0m thick, and a wall built along the top of the cliff on the NE landward side. Fragments of the outer wall face, 0.5m high, are visible. The entrance is almost central and is flanked on the NW side by a triangular-shaped slab on edge, 1.2m high, 1.5m wide and 0.3m thick. The width of the entrance is 2.0m. The 'cross wall' seen on aerial photographs is a natural hollow.
About 8.0m to the SE of the entrance and possibly partly overlying the fort wall, though this is not certain, is a denuded stone-walled hut measuring about 7.5m in diameter. There is debris scattered inside the hut and indications that a smaller structure has been inserted in it at a later period. There is no entrance evident.
Outside the entrance to the fort are the poorly-defined footings of two small later circular bothies, and another lies below the crag the the SE. Outside the two small bothies are traces of an enclosure wall probably contemporary with them.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (I S S) 29 May 1972.
(Reclassified as fort, enclosures, huts and pottery; location amended to NG 2811 0398). A fort crowns the summit of Sean Dun, an isolated stack of columnar basalt that rises above the rocky foreshore on the E side of Suileabhaig. For the most part, it is defined by no more than a cliff, but on the NE, along the landward side, a drystone wall up to 2.2m thick has been built. The interior of the fort measures 61m from NW to SE by 25m transversely overall. Stretches of the outer wall-face survive in places still standing several courses high, but only a few isolated stones mark the line of the inner face. The entrance is marked by a 2m wide break in the wall, which opens externally into a natural hollow that breaks the line of the cliff on this side. The NW side of the entrance is faced with a single massive boulder.
An enclosure and a small hut are visible within the SE end of the interior, and both appear to overlie the stone wall. The enclosure lies 5m to the SW of the entrance, and is roughly oval on plan, measuring 7.2m from N to S by 5.3m transversely within a wall 1.1m in thickness and 0.4m in height; several inner facing stones are visible on the S. A stony bank runs diagonally across the interior from NW to SE and is either the remains of a partition wall, or a smaller structure inserted at a later date. The hut lies a further 2.2m to the E, and measures 3m from ENE to WSW by 2.2m overall.
In the slight hollow below the entrance to the fort, there are three more huts, the southernmost of which (NG 2813 0398) lies at the foot of the cliff; pottery sherds were recovered from this hut. From here, traces of a stony bank can be seen running downslope into an area of boggy ground, and this probably formed an enclosure, linking up with a right-angled stretch of stony bank to the NW. On the foreshore (NG 2818 0394), some 35m to the ESE of the fort, there is another hut; circular on plan, it is defined by orthostatic boulders.
(Canna 391-3, 941-3, 1013).
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 6 June 1994.
Field Visit (29 May 1972)
Lethbridge has mistaken Sean Dun for Dun Easubric. On Sean Dun a cliff girt plateau of rock at NG 2812 0397 is a fort with the remains of a hut circle inside. The irregular-shaped top of the plateau measures 80.0m NW-SSE by about 20.0m, with a wall about 2.0m thick, and a wall built along the top of the cliff on the NE landward side. Fragments of the outer wall face, 0.5m high, are visible. The entrance is almost central and is flanked on the NW side by a triangular-shaped slab on edge, 1.2m high, 1.5m wide and 0.3m thick. The width of the entrance is 2.0m. The 'cross wall' seen on aerial photographs is a natural hollow.
About 8.0m to the SE of the entrance and possibly partly overlying the fort wall, though this is not certain, is a denuded stone-walled hut measuring about 7.5m in diameter. There is debris scattered inside the hut and indications that a smaller structure has been inserted in it at a later period. There is no entrance evident.
Outside the entrance to the fort are the poorly-defined footings of two small later circular bothies, and another lies below the crag the the SE. Outside the two small bothies are traces of an enclosure wall probably contemporary with them.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (I S S) 29 May 1972.
Field Visit (6 June 1994)
(Reclassified as fort, enclosures, huts and pottery; location amended to NG 2811 0398). A fort crowns the summit of Sean Dun, an isolated stack of columnar basalt that rises above the rocky foreshore on the E side of Suileabhaig. For the most part, it is defined by no more than a cliff, but on the NE, along the landward side, a drystone wall up to 2.2m thick has been built. The interior of the fort measures 61m from NW to SE by 25m transversely overall. Stretches of the outer wall-face survive in places still standing several courses high, but only a few isolated stones mark the line of the inner face. The entrance is marked by a 2m wide break in the wall, which opens externally into a natural hollow that breaks the line of the cliff on this side. The NW side of the entrance is faced with a single massive boulder.
An enclosure and a small hut are visible within the SE end of the interior, and both appear to overlie the stone wall. The enclosure lies 5m to the SW of the entrance, and is roughly oval on plan, measuring 7.2m from N to S by 5.3m transversely within a wall 1.1m in thickness and 0.4m in height; several inner facing stones are visible on the S. A stony bank runs diagonally across the interior from NW to SE and is either the remains of a partition wall, or a smaller structure inserted at a later date. The hut lies a further 2.2m to the E, and measures 3m from ENE to WSW by 2.2m overall.
In the slight hollow below the entrance to the fort, there are three more huts, the southernmost of which (NG 2813 0398) lies at the foot of the cliff; pottery sherds were recovered from this hut. From here, traces of a stony bank can be seen running downslope into an area of boggy ground, and this probably formed an enclosure, linking up with a right-angled stretch of stony bank to the NW. On the foreshore (NG 2818 0394), some 35m to the ESE of the fort, there is another hut; circular on plan, it is defined by orthostatic boulders.
(Canna 391-3, 941-3, 1013).
Visited by RCAHMS (ARG), 6 June 1994.
Measured Survey (15 March 1996)
RCAHMS surveyed the enclosure and huts at Sean Dun, Sanday on 15 March 1996 at a scale of 1:500. The plan was redrawn in ink for publication (RCAHMS 1999). The plan was also later used as the basis for an illustration which was published in 2016 (Hunter, fig. 2.18).
Note (13 January 2015 - 30 May 2016)
This fortification encloses the summit of an elongated stack situated above the beach on the E side of the bay named Suileabhaig. Irregular on plan, the interior is largely defined by cliffs around the NNW end and the seaward flank, but along the more accessible NE flank is defended by a wall up to 2.2m thick; few inner facing-stones are visible, but stretches of the outer face can be seen and in some places this stands 0.5m high in several courses. The entrance is in the middle of the NE side, where the wall skirts the lip of a deep natural hollow in the side of the stack, and the NW side of the gap is formed by a single massive boulder 1.2m high. The interior measures about 61m from NNW to SSE by a maximum of 25m transversely and contains two structures within its SSE end, though both appear to overlie the wall. One is a small bothy and is probably associated with three similar structures at the foot of the stack below the entrance, while the other is an oval enclosure measuring 7.2m from N to S by 5.3m transversely within a wall 1.1m thick by 0.4m high.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 30 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2690
