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Skye, Dun Feorlig

Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)

Site Name Skye, Dun Feorlig

Classification Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)

Alternative Name(s) Fearlig

Canmore ID 10864

Site Number NG24SE 8

NGR NG 2993 4235

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/10864

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Duirinish
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Skye And Lochalsh
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes ( - 1971)

NG24SE 8 2993 4235.

(NG 2993 4235) Dun Feorlig (NR)

About 250 yards NNE of Feorlig farm-house, on an elevated rock projecting into the W side of Loch Caroy, are the scanty remains of Dun Feorlig, a probable broch measuring some 53' in diameter externally.

The wall is represented as a stony mound rising at most about 4' above the interior, but only on the S and N is there any trace of building, and then only of the outer foundation course. Across the neck connecting the rock with the land is a hollow about 12' broad and 3' deep, apparently excavated. The external diameter and the contour of the structure suggest that this may have been a broch.

(RCAHMS 1928, visited 1915).

Listed as an uncertain example of a broch.

(A Graham 1949).

Dun Feorlig, a broch, surviving as an overgrown circular mound c.1.5m high. Part of the wall has been eroded in the SE, but a few intermittent outer wall facing stones are visible elsewhere giving an overall diameter of 16.5m. The hollowed interior is filled with debris, but shows two or three inner facing stones immediately to the N of the ill-defined entrance in the W, giving a wall thickness of 4.3m at this point.

The excavated hollow outside the broch to the W is undoubtedly the remains of an outwork.

Visited by OS (C F W) 15 May 1961 and (A A) 13 October 1971.

Activities

Field Visit (13 May 1915)

Dun Feorlig, Feorlig.

About 250 yards north-north-east of Feorlig farm-house, on an elevated rock projecting into the west side of Loch Caroy, and rising 20 to 25 feet above the sea, are the scanty remains of Dun Feorlig, a circular fort measuring some 53 feet in diameter externally. The wall is represented as a stony mound rising at most about 4 feet above the interior, but only on the south and north is there any trace of building, and then only of the outer foundation course. Across the neck connecting the rock with the land is a hollow about 12 feet broad and 3 feet deep, apparently excavated. The external diameter and the contour of the structure suggest that this may have been a broch.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 13 May 1915.

OS map: Skye xxviii.

Publication Account (2007)

NG24 2 DUN FEORLIG

NG/2993 4235

Probable broch in Duirinish, Skye, which stands on an elevated rock projecting into the west side of Loch Caroy. Only a ring-shaped stony mound survives with fragments of the foundation course of the outer wallface preserved on the south and north sides; a few stones of the inner face are also preserved, suggesting a wall thickness of 3.2m [4]. The overall diameter is about 16.2m (53 ft) [2]. There are no clear signs of the entrance but it ought to be on the west side where the easiest approach lies; a single slab may represent the northern inner corner of the passage [4].

There is a neck connecting the rock with the land around and what seems to be a shallow ditch crosses this.

Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NG 24 SE 8: 2. RCAHMS 1928, 161, no. 516: 3. Graham 1947, 97: 4. Swanson (ms) 1985, 873-4 and plan: 5. MacSween 1984-85, 45, no. 25 and fig. 25.

E W MacKie 2007

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