Dun Cruinn, Skye

Dun Cruinn, Skerinish.

On the peninsula separating separating Loch Eyre from the upper part of Loch Snizort Beag, about 6 ½ miles north-west of Portree, ¾ of a mile north-north-west of Skerinish House, are three flat-topped rocky hills known as the Skerinish Duns. The most northerly of these naturally strong heights, Dun Cruinn, which lies about 350 yards east of and rises 300 feet from the eastern shore of Loch Snizort Beag, is the site of a fine fort. To the east and south the land dips down some 60 feet before rising again to over the 300 feet contour line. The summit of the hill, laterally level, rises slightly towards the centre of its length, and is on plan an irregular oval with main axis running north-west and south-east; it measures about 300 feet in length and about 80 feet in breadth near the centre. The summit has been defended by a stone wall, now almost obliterated, built on the edge of the steep natural scarp, except round the south-eastern part, which is defended by perpendicular cliffs up to 20 feet in height. A rampart of earth 25 feet broad in places, 3 to 5 feet high on the inside and 5 to 13 feet on the outside, apparently containing only its natural admixture of stones, is built all along the foot of the natural slope on the eastern flank and south-eastern end, at distances from crest of hill varying from 35 to 80 feet. Between its southern termination and the crest of a steep natural slope on the west a gap of 27 feet is the only distinguishable approach to the fort, and 130 feet north-east of here, abutting on the inside of the rampart, is a semicircular area of about 36 feet in diameter bounded by a smaller rampart. The approach follows the south-western edge below the precipitous ledge of the summit, and obliquely across its mouth, in a line almost due north and south, are four boulders set on edge with a fifth about 5 feet west of the most northerly.

The southern end of the summit is occupied by an oval building measuring from crest to crest 50 feet in length from north to south by 40 feet from east to west, surrounded by a stone wall, now overgrown with grass, of indefinite width and 6 feet in height in places, built a few feet from the precipitous sides of the ridge and some 64 feet from its southern extremity. It has been entered from the east and divided in two by a low cross wall running almost east and west, and on its eastern wall there is a hut circle 12 feet in diameter. Forming an arc some 50 or 60 feet in length round the south-west of this building, and about 20 feet distant, crest to crest, is a defensive rampart 12 feet broad, which to some extent covers the main approach. The remaining part of the summit towards the north has been cut across its length by a shallow ditch 12 feet broad, with the excavated earth forming a low rampart 7 feet broad along its south side, thus making two enclosures; the northmost measures 126 feet in length and averages 75 feet in breadth, and the southmost, about 80 feet by 60 feet, has been subdivided by a slight rampart near its middle running north-west and south-east. In the north-west corner of the western subdivision is a hut circle 10 feet in diameter and in line with it to the east are traces of two others. The best preserved circle lies near the centre of the eastern flank, and two are faintly seen at the northern end; on the western flank are two impinging circles each 9 feet in diameter, near the centre of the wall. Another is traceable to the south. There are indications of hut circles near the centre of the northmost enclosure, and seven others can be traced abutting on the inside of the crest; their diameters are from 9 to 15 feet. The entrance pathway up the steep natural slope to this enclosure seems to pass between a well defined hut circle in its south-western angle and the end of the dividing ditch.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 28 May 1921.

OS map: Skye xvii.

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 41080 51850 Dun Cruinn (Canmore ID: 11332) This is a multivallate fort overlain by a later dun occupying a rocky knoll on a large promontory stretching out into Loch Dun Neill, Skye Snizort Beag. A large earthen rampart with internal quarry ditch stretches around the base of the steep S and E sides, but is not apparent at the more gently sloping N side. It would make sense that this rampart, facing inland towards possible approach routes, along with the several large boulders arranged on the W side approaching the entrance, was more for display than practical defence. A small bank on the N side could be a continuation of this rampart, but as it lines up with field banks leading away from the fort to W and E it is probably later. The earthen rampart is overlain by scree from the fort wall at the top of the hill, suggesting that it is not later in date. On the summit, a straight internal bank running E/W, noted by the RCAHMS as contemporary with the fort or dun, may be another later field bank. The adjacent abandoned farming township has impacted the visible remains greatly and complicated interpretations of what could be in itself a complex and interesting site.

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)

This fort is situated on an elongated hillock at the NNW end of the Skerinish peninsula. The ground falls away steeply all along the WSW flank, ultimately down to the loch shore, while on the ENE the hillock is separated from the rising ground to the E by a deep natural hollow. The visible remains comprise two principal elements: what is probably a heavily-robbed broch; and an earlier fort. The broch occupies the southern end of the interior of the fort, which measures about 95m from NNW to SSE by a maximum of 25m transversely (0.19ha), and is divided in half by a later transverse wall roughly midway along its length. The innermost defences of the fort comprise an inner wall, now reduced to little more than a band of rubble with occasional outer facing-stones, which can be traced along the margins of the summit and measures about 3m in thickness; this is best preserved around the NNW half, but it probably extended around the edge of the precipitous SSE end, where it is overlain by the ruins of the broch. On the ENE flank below the inner wall there are possible traces of an outer wall, but at its S end this seems to have been cut out by the internal ditch of a major outer defence set at the foot of the slope to encompass the whole of the E half of the circuit. The ditch increases in breadth southwards from 4m to a maximum of 9m where it terminates adjacent to an entrance on the lip of the slope dropping away to the W; it is accompanied by an upcast rampart on its counterscarp. The route from this entrance to the summit probably followed a terrace at the foot of the cliffs on the SW; access to this terrace, however, is partly blocked by a line of boulders opposite the terminal of the ditch. In 1921 RCAHMS investigators depicted eight structures within the interior, but the OS felt unable to identify any of them as the remains of a hut-circle. The defences evidently represent several phases of construction, the latest element probably being the transverse wall across the interior, though whether this was contemporary with the occupation of the broch, as suggested by the OS, or is part of the later pattern of field-banks in the vicinity, is unknown.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 October 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2731