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Loch Thurnaig
Dun (Prehistoric)
Site Name Loch Thurnaig
Classification Dun (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Dunan Mor
Canmore ID 11985
Site Number NG88SE 4
NGR NG 8627 8333
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/11985
- Council Highland
- Parish Gairloch
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NG88SE 4 8627 8333.
There was once a dun at Tournaig. The site is still called Dunan, or the 'little dun'. 'It is only evidenced today by the large stepping-stones that give dry access to it at the highest spring-tides'.
J H Dixon 1886.
At NG 8627 8333 on a conical peninsula approx 12.0m above HWM on Spring Tide, on the south shore of Loch Thurnaig, are the heather-covered remains of a dun, still known locally as Dunan.
The vague inner defences approx 2.5m wide and 1.0m high forming two-thirds of a circle 22.0m internal diameter and incorporating the sheer cliffs in the NE, consist of tumbled rubble stones, with a few larger irregularly-shaped stones defining the wall faces. There is no trace of an entrance.
All that can be seen of the outer defences is a scarp, 1.5 m max ht., and several orthostats marking the wall-face. It joins the east and west cliffs on the landward side of the dun. The entrance is in the SE.
The grassy isthmus is about 10.0 m wide at HWM on Spring Tide, and is traversed by a line of flat-topped stepping-stones, 0.4 m high, which join the lowest point of the dun to the mainland.
Both lines of defences are very amorphous, but the inner wall appears to have been constructed of parallel lines of unworked stones with rubble infilling, similar to the nearby hut-circles (See NG88SE 14 and NG88SE 15 ) Visited by OS (N K B) 18 March 1965.
Field Visit (9 June 1994)
This dun occupies the top of a conical stack which projects into Loch Thuirnaig and is joined to the mainland by a narrow neck of low-lying ground. The dun wall is visible only on the S and W margins of the stack and may never have existed on the N and E. Enclosing a roughly oval area 21m from N to S by 17m transversely, it has been reduced to a stony bank 2.6m in thickness and up to 0.5m in height. A number of boulders forming the basal course of the outer face of the wall can be seen through the deep heather that covers the site. An outwork has been drawn across the neck of the promontory, the lowest course of its outer face comprising massive boulders, with a gap on the SE which may indicate the position of the entrance.
(Inverewe 43)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 9 June 1994
Srp Note (2 November 2011)
Site is as described.
Information from NTS: INVG003 (JH 1998)
Note (23 January 2015 - 31 May 2016)
This small fortification is situated on the S shore of Loch Thurnaig, where a hammerhead promontory fringed with low cliffs is linked to the mainland by little more than a broad grass-grown storm beach. The defences comprise two elements: an outer wall barring access to the NW end of the hammerhead, cutting across its spine from E to W; and an inner D-shaped enclosure backing onto the lip of the low cliffs on the NE. The outer has been reduced largely to a stony scarp with a few large outer facing-stones along its line and cuts off an area measuring about 43m from NW to SE by 23m transversely (0.09ha); a gap in the wall on the SE is possibly the entrance. The inner enclosure is probably roughly oval, though there is little evidence of the wall on the NE, and measures internally about 21m from N to S by 17m transversely (0.03ha); where best preserved the wall forms a stony bank 2.6m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The relationship between the two elements is not known.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2747
