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Skye, Ullinish
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Skye, Ullinish
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 11065
Site Number NG33NW 6
NGR NG 3173 3740
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11065
- Council Highland
- Parish Bracadale
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG33NW 6 3173 3740.
(NG 3173 3740) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map, (1969)
A fort comprising the remains of a curving wall drawn across the landward side of a cliff girt coastal promontory. The wall abuts onto the cliff at each end and no attempt has been made to continue it round the promontory nor to block one or two places of easy access which makes the position relatively weak. Although the outer wall face is visible intermittently, no definite inner facing stones are evident, but judging by the debris, the wall appears to have been generally 2.0m thick, perhaps expanding to about 2.5m near its centre. The entrance is about 10.0m from the S end of the wall. The outer end of the S side is defined by three stones on edge, but the N side is destroyed and the width cannot be ascertained. The interior is featureless.
Visited by OS (A A) 2 November 1971 and (A S P) 2 June 1961.
RCAHMS 1928.
Field Visit (18 May 1915)
Promontory Fort, Ullinish.
Some 5/8 mile west-south-west of Ullinish Lodge is an elevated promontory with precipitous rocky sides rising about 40 feet above the sea-shore and about 20 feet above the land in the rear. The peninsula has been defended by a stone wall, of which very scanty fragments are left, built across the landward end of the peninsula, the ends of the wall giving on to the cliff on either side. It has been about 6 feet thick, and while at the central and highest part it crosses the plateau about 20 feet behind the edge of a rocky bluff, at the lower parts, which are more accessible, it is built on the edge of an escarpment.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 18 May 1915.
OS map: Skye xxxiii (unnoted).
Field Visit (20 April 2015 - 22 April 2015)
Field visits were undertaken to various sites, 20–22 April 2015, as part of a general survey of forts on Skye carried out by Simon Wood and Ian Ralston as part of the fieldwork for the former’s PhD research.
NG 31730 37400 Ullinish (Canmore ID: 11065) This promontory fort appears to be larger and more heavily defended than apparent from the OS report (1971). A considerable rampart stretches along the E side of a large promontory from sheer cliff on the S to a smaller, 2–3m high, cliff on the N. This northern side has been described by the OS investigator as a place of easy access, making the position weak; however, considerable amounts of scree lie at the bottom of this cliff, suggesting that a rampart may have once stretched further to the N than currently visible. The interior measures 4085m2 and is mostly flat, making this one of the largest forts on Skye.
Archive: National Record of the Historic Environment (intended)
Funder: School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
Simon Wood and Ian Ralston – University of Edinburgh
(Source: DES, Volume 16)
Note (15 January 2015 - 18 May 2016)
This fort occupies a promontory on a headland projecting W into Loch Bracadale SW of Ullinish. No dimensions of the fort have been recorded, but its defences comprise a single wall drawn in an arc across the landward approach on the E, with its ends resting on the cliff-edge on the NNW and SSE. Heavily dilapidated, occasional facing stones mark the line of the outer face and it was probably between 2m and 2.5m in thickness. The entrance lies 10m short of the S margin of the promontory, three upright stones marking the outer end of the S terminal. The interior, which is featureless, seems to have extended to the greater part of the boss of rock shown on the current map, taking in an area that may have measured as much as 110m from E to W by op to 70m transversely (0.7ha).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2701
