Dun Scriben
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Dun Scriben
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 12321
Site Number NH42SE 3
NGR NH 4913 2358
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12321
- Council Highland
- Parish Urquhart And Glenmoriston
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH42SE 3 4913 2358.
(NH 4913 2358) Dunscriben Fort (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)
A fort, situated on a flat-topped knoll and known locally as Dun Scriben. It is sub-oval on plan and measures 26.0m WNW-ESE by c. 30.0m overall, with the outer face of its tumbled drystone wall visible in the W and E arcs. The W face has been excavated and it survives to a maximum height of c. 1.0m; it is built of small thin slabs roughly coursed braced with occasional blocks on edge. In the E, the base course of the face is occasionally visible in the slope of the knoll, but in the N it has slipped down the slope and in the S it is obscured by tumble. Only three or four stones of the inner face are visible, in the S, and a true wall thickness cannot be established, but the width of tumble and the position of the outer face below the lip of the knoll suggest a thickness of between 3.5m and 4.0m. The entrance is not evident, although the RCAHMS (Visited by RCAHMS 1957) state that it is in the S, on the easiest line of approach. The footings of a modern wall overlie the wall in the E, and a modern shelter is built against it.
Surveyed at 1:2500. (Visited by OS (R D) 27 July 1964)
Visited by OS (A A) 1 May 1970
(NH 4913 2358) Dun Scriben {NAT} Fort {NR}
OS 1/10,000 map, 1974
No change to previous field report.
Survey revised at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (J B) 16 February 1979
Note (1957)
Fort, Dun Scriben (NH 491 235). This fort is situated at a height of 700ft OD just S of Grotaig on a low crag that protrudes N from a ridge separating the Grotaig Burn from Lochness. It is subrectangular on plan, measuring 60ft in either direction within a ruinous stone wall. The entrance is in the S, the interior featureless.
Information from RCAHMS c.1957.
(TISS, ii, 145)
Note (4 March 2015 - 31 May 2016)
This small fortification, which occupies a flat-topped knoll, is sub-rectangular on plan and measures about 30m from N to S by 26m transversely (0.07ha) within a single wall largely reduced to a mound of rubble. The line of the outer face is intermittently visible on the E, while a length standing up to 1m high has been exposed on the W; few inner facing stones are visible, but the wall is in the order of 3.5m in thickness and the entrance may be on the S. The footings of a modern dyke overlie the wall on the E and at the SE corner.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2873
