Rum, Shellesder

A fort within an area bounded by a wall 37.0m long, constructed across the neck of a cliff-girt promontory. The wall survives as a mutilated stony bank c.2.0m high and about 4.0m thick in which fragments of the outer face (to a maximum height of 1.0m) are visible. About 5 metres from the S end, which is almost completely denuded, is a slight gap which may hae been the entrance. Within the fort are the remains of three, stone-walled huts. One is oval and measures c.6.0m by 5.0m with an entrance in the NE. The second is circular and measures 6.0m in diameter, and the third is visible as a turf-covered rickle of stones enclosing a roughly circular area about 8.0m in diameter.

The two structures outside the fort described by David as huts, are small shieling-like structures probably contemporary with the lazybed cultivation that lies around them.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (AA) 15 May 1972.

NG30SW 1 3270 0205.

(NG 3270 0205) A possible, small, promontory fort, formed by a drystone wall, at least 3' thick and still standing to a height of 3' in parts, which runs across the neck of the promontory. On the landward side of the wall, and 10' to 20' from it, are the foundations of two small circular drystone huts, averaging 6' in internal diameter. AP's (106G. Scot.UK 53: 3130-1) show many cultivation riggs in the immediate vicinity.

Source: G C David 1967

This fort is situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the mouth of the Shellesder Burn from N. It measures about 44m from N to S by 30m transversely within an arc of walling which cuts across the neck of the promontory. The wall is at least 3.4m thick with several streches of outer facing-stones standing to a maximum height of 1m in five courses. The entrance (0.85m wide) lies on the SW; four stones of the NE and one of the SW side of the passage are still in situ. On the W of the interior there is an oval enclosure measuring 5.3m by 5m within a wall 1m thick, with an entrance on the E. Outside the fort an irregular stony bank crosses the promontory, but it is not clear whether it forms an outwork to the fort or is a later enclosure. Situated in the enclosure there is a hut, and a second lies on the bank.

RCAHMS 1983, visited May 1983.

Shellesder NG 326 020 NG30SW 1

This fort is situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the mouth of the Shellesder Burn from the N. It measures about 44m from N to S by 30m transversely within an arc of walling which cuts across the neck of the promontory. The wall is at least 3.4m thick with several stretches of outer facing-stones standing to a maximum height of 1m in five courses. The entrance (0.85m wide) lies on the SW; four stones of the NE and one of the SW side of the passage are still in situ. On the W of the interior there is an oval enclosure measuring 5.3m by 5m within a wall 1m thick, with an entrance on the E. Outside the fort an irregular stony bank crosses the promontory, but it is not clear whether it forms an outwork to the fort or is a later enclosure. Situated in the enclosure there is a hut, and a second lies on the bank.

RCAHMS 1983, visited May 1983

(DES, 1967, 28)

This fort is situated on a rocky promontory overlooking Guirdil Bay and the Sound of Canna. The substantial wall survives as described by the previous authority (RCAHMS 1983), taking in an area that measures about 70m from WNW to ESE by up to 40m transversely. The grass-grown interior is uneven, dropping steeply in the western half and there are the remains of three hut-circles within the fort.

The remains of a large hut-circle are situated at the E and highest part of the interior, 15m NNE of the entrance. It appears to overlie the defensive wall, and measures 11m in diameter over a stony bank spread up to 1.5m in thickness and 0.2m in height. Its WNW sector has been robbed but for one outer-facing stone. Three inner-facing stones survive on the SE. No entrance is visible.

About 27m to the WSW, a second hut-circle measures about 7m in diameter over a stony bank 1m in thickness and up to 0.2m in height. There is an entrance to the NNE 1m wide.

A further 28m to the WNW, on the lower level, is a third hut-circle. Oval on plan, this measures about 6.5m from NE to SW by 5m transversely over a stony bank 0.8m in thickness, and 0.2m in height. The entrance appears to be in the NE.

Immediately outside the fort, there are the scant remains of an enclosure wall that springs from the fort’s wall and encloses a D-shaped area 17m from NNE to SSW by 7m transversely. This wall measures roughly 1.5m in thickness, and up to 0.2m in height. Outer-facing stones are visible along the SE sector, and where the wall abuts the fort on the N.

Overlying this bank are the remains of a small hut, similar in character to another 6m lying to the SE. Lazy bedding orientated from NNW to SSE overlies the enclosure and extends further to the E.

Visited by RCAHMS (GG, IP, AG) 25 August 2011.

RCAHMS 1983

Plan at 1:500 (DC 49447)

.

RCAHMS surveyed the promontory fort at Glen Shellesder, Rum on 25 August 2011 with plane table and self-reducing alidade at a scale of 1:500. The plan was later used as the basis for an illustration published in 2016 at a scale of 1:1000 (Hunter, fig. 5.10).

This promontory fort is situated on the coastal cliffs at the mouth of Glen Shellesder, immediately NE of the mouth of the burn. The defences comprise a single wall drawn across the neck of the promontory on the ESE to cut off an area measuring about 70m from ESE to WNW by 40m transversely (0.31ha). The wall measures at least 3.4m in thickness, and though there is no trace of the inner face, several stretches of the outer face are visible, standing up to 1m high in five courses. The entrance is towards the S margin of the promontory and is 0.85m wide at its outer end. The interior, which is rough and uneven, descending from a summit area immediately behind the wall down to a lower terrace at its seaward end, contains three hut-circles. The first is about 9m in diameter within a low wall and overlies the fort wall on the very highest part of the promontory on its E margin. The second also lies in the upper part of the interior, but on its S margin, and measures 5m in internal diameter, while the third, on the S margin of the lower terrace, and is oval and measures about 4.9m by 3.4m internally. Outside the fort a later enclosure abuts the wall and is overlain by one of two small huts associated with later activity round about, which includes extensive cultivation.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2695