Skye, Staffin, Carn Ban
Cairn (Period Unassigned), Dun (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Skye, Staffin, Carn Ban
Classification Cairn (Period Unassigned), Dun (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 11350
Site Number NG46NE 2
NGR NG 4874 6825
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11350
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmuir
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG46NE 2 487 682
(NG 487 682) Carn Ban (NR)
OS 1" map, (7th series)
Carn Ban, the remains of a large circular cairn measuring 52ft in diameter. Almost levelled to the ground, the circumference is outlined by a kerb or large stones set on edge.
(RCAHMS 1928).
Carn Ban as described by RCAHMS. The kerb can be traced from the NW side through E to the S side, and a single stone remains on the SW side.
On the WNW of the cairn two large stones at right angles to the peristalith (? portal stones), suggest the cairn may originally have been chambered.
It is in poor condition, nowhere more than 1.0m in height and is surrounded by a number of ruined houses.
Visited by OS (A S P) 25 April 1961.
Field Visit (27 May 1914)
Cairn, Carn Ban, Garrafad.
At an elevation of barely 100 feet above sea-level, some 400 yards east of Staffin Lodge and 200 yards from the southern shore of Staffin Bay, are the remains of Carn Ban, a large circular cairn measuring 52 feet in diameter. The cairn is almost levelled to the ground, the circumference being outlined by a ring of large stones set on edge.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 27 May 1914.
OS map: Skye vii (unnoted).
Field Visit (15 April 1988)
Not a chambered cairn, but remains of a dun (or possibly a broch), mutilated and robbed for later settlement. The outer and inner faces of a wall varying between 3 - 3.5m in thickness, with an internal diameter of between 10 - 11m. The entrance passage (0.7m in width) lies at the NW.
A circular structure some 2m in diameter and with a wall thickness of 0.8m sits in the northern quadrant of the interior, and is probably of a later date. Similarly hollows within the interior seem to be of a later date to the defensive works. Later rectangular buildings to the E, W and N and stone dykes, have probably absorbed some of the original fabric.
Visited by R Miket, 15 April 1988.
