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Tom Na H-uraich, Skye
Dun (Prehistoric)
Site Name Tom Na H-uraich, Skye
Classification Dun (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 11383
Site Number NG47SE 1
NGR NG 4506 7390
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11383
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmuir
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Skye And Lochalsh
- Former County Inverness-shire
NG47SE 1 4506 7390.
(NG 4506 7390) Dun (NR)
OS 6" map, (1965)
The remains of a dun on a hillock named Tom na h-Uraich at the edge of a high sea cliff. Oval on plan,the dun has consisted of a stone wall on the N, W & S which has terminated at each end on the cliff which itself has formed the defence in the E. The area enclosed has measured c. 30.0m N/S by c 14.0m transversely. The wall has been robbed probably to build 19th century dykes in the vicinity and apart from six outer facing stones in the S arc and two or three others on the W side survives only as turf covered change of slope. In the northern half of the level interior is a circular stone-walled hut measuring 7.5m between the centres of a wall spread to 2.0m in width. One outer facing stone is visible in the W arc and a few inner facing stones in the E arc. The mutilated entrance is in the N. It cannot be established if the hut and dun are contemporary. To the S of the hut is disturbed ground, obscured by bracken at the time of investigation, which may be what the Commission (RCAHMS 1928) have interpreted as a crescentic enclosure 8ft broad.
Visited by OS (I S S) 23 September 1971
(RCAHMS 1928, visited 1914).
Field Visit (28 May 1914)
Fort, Tom na h-Uraich, Bagh nan Gunnaichean, near Kilmaluag.
This cliff fort is situated about 1 mile east of Kilmaluag Bridge, on a slight hillock on the edge of the cliff which rises 200 feet out of the sea at Bagh nan Gunnaichean. Towards the land to the west the ground falls away in a gentle slope. The stones used in the construction of the fort have almost entirely been removed, leaving only two slight banks to mark the lines of the defences. Within an oval enclosure, measuring internally some 30 yards in length from north by west to south by east and 44 feet in breadth, the walls of which terminate on the edge of the cliff on the northern and southern ends, is a circular building 20 feet in diameter internally, placed midway between the edge of the cliff and the outer wall on the western flank and 20 feet from the northern end. The wall of this structure is reduced to a width of 2 feet and a height of 1 foot 6 inches, the entrance being placed in the northern arc. Abutting on the outside of the southern arc is a crescentic enclosure 8 feet broad.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 28 May 1914.
OS map: Skye iv.
Note (19 January 2015 - 31 May 2016)
This small fortification occupies a hillock on the edge of the coastal escarpment on the NE coast of Troternish, were the ground drops away precipitously on the NE to the shore of Bagh nan Gunnaichean some 60m below. The walls have been heavily robbed, but it seems to have comprised an outer enclosure backing onto the escarpment, within which there is a centrally placed circular building. The interior of the outer enclosure measures about 27m from N to S by 13m transversely (0.03ha) . The position of the entrance is not known.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2717
