Dun Dearg, Valtos, Skye

Dun Dearg, Valtos.

The site of Dun Dearg is an elevated plateau on the sea-shore at the northern boundary of the township of Valtos. The plateau, which measures some 88 yards-from north to south, and some 40 yards from east to west, is bordered on all sides except the north by precipitous rocks. Along the greater part of the eastern side they rise directly from the shore for a height of about 200 feet, on the south they are about 30 feet high, and on the east they gradually decrease in height till at the northern end they merge into a narrow ridge on the edge of the cliff, by which access to the fort is gained in a gradual ascent. The first defence, a stone wall, is built across this ridge, from the edge of the cliff on the east to the rocks on the western flank, a distance of some 60 feet; it then is carried a short distance southwards towards the fort. The wall is almost entirely swept away, but at the entrance, which seems to be about 4 feet wide and which is placed near the centre of the ridge, it shows a width of some 6 feet 6 inches. The inner wall, built on the edge of the plateau some 55 feet from, and 14 feet higher than, the outer rampart, though much dilapidated, shows more building than the outer defence. It can be· traced across the northern end of the fort and for a considerable distance along the western flank. The entrance through it is near the middle of the northern end but is too much broken down for measurement. To the east of the entrance the outer face of the wall, showing some large blocks of stone in its structure, maintains a height of about 3 feet over a length of some 15 feet. It seems to have been about 8 feet thick and is reduced to a height of 1 foot 6 inches or 2 feet above the interior. A large natural hollow, open towards the sea, occupies a large portion of the interior of the dun.

At the base of the rocks on the north-westside of the fort are the foundations of a number of stone structures, one being circular with an internal diameter of about 9 feet.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 31 August 1915

OS map: Skye viii.

This fort occupies the summit of an isolated hillock that forms part of the coastal escarpment at Valtos, dropping some 60m to the sea on the NE and decreasing from 10m around the W flank to a narrow sloping neck providing access from the N. On the slope dropping down into the neck, the route to the top of the hillock is barred by at least two walls set up to 17m apart, both of which are largely reduced to grass-grown bands of rubble and pierced by centrally placed entrances. The inner wall, which was probably about 2.4m in thickness and retains several course of its outer face to the E of the entrance, is set on the crest of the hillock and can also be traced some distance along the cliff-edge on the W. The outer wall also turns back along the cliff-edge on the W. In addition to these walls, Ann MacSween's sketch plan shows a third at the narrowest point on the neck, but makes no mention of it in her notes; possibly this line is no more than an element of the later field-system that encloses the surrounding area. The greater part of the interior of the fort, which measures about 80m from NNW to SSE by 45m transversely (0.3ha), is taken up by a deep natural hollow opening out towards the sea.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2722