Dun Mor
Fort (Iron Age)
Site Name Dun Mor
Classification Fort (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 12378
Site Number NH44NE 8
NGR NH 45734 45155
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/12378
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmorack
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH44NE 8 NH4574 4515.
(NH 4574 4515) Dun Mor (NR)
OS 6"map, (1959)
Occupying the summit of an isolated crag is a fort named Dun Mor. It is sub-oval on plan, measuring 24.2 m NNE-SSW by 16.0 m within a tumbled wall in which roughly coursed outer and inner faces can be seen to a maximum height of four courses round most of the perimeter giving a wall thickness varying between 4.5 m and 5.9 m. The entrance, in the SE, is choked by tumble. At the higher N side of the interior is an apparently natural platform about 10.0 m across.
An outer wall extends around the E and S sides of the fort at a lower level, ending on the cliffs to the N and W. It is reduced to its lowest course with outer and inner faces visible giving an average thickness of about 3.0 m. A mutilated entrance is visible in the SE in line with the entrance to the fort and at the easiest point of approach. A further wall to the S encloses the shoulder of the crag. It is denuded and for most of its length only the lowest course of the outer face can be seen but on the E side several inner facing-stones are visible giving a thickness of 3.2 m.(Visited by RCAHMS 1957)
Planned at 1/1250
Divorced survey at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (R L) 7 April 1970; R W Feachem 1963; T D Wallace 1886
Dun Mor: a massively constructed dun, generally as described in the previous report.
RCAHMS 1979
This is a dun and is as described in the previous field report.
Survey Diagram.
Visited by OS (J M) 11 February 1981
Field Visit (2 September 1943)
This site was recorded as part of the RCAHMS Emergency Survey, undertaken by Angus Graham and Vere Gordon Childe during World War 2. The project archive has been catalogued during 2013-2014 and the material, which includes notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, plans and photographs, is now available online.
Information from RCAHMS (GF Geddes) 12 November 2014.
Field Visit (March 1979)
Dun Mor, Tighnaleac NH 457 451 NH44NE 8
This massively constructed dun measures about 24.2m by 16m within a wall about 5.5m in maximum thickness; on the S and E there is a second wall spread to about 4.5m in thickness. The entrance is on the SE. A triangular area below the outwork on the S, is enclosed by a non-defensive wall.
RCAHMS 1979, visited March 1979
(Wallace 1886, 343; Feachem 1977, 128)
Note (5 March 2015 - 31 May 2016)
Dun Mor is a massively constructed dun situated on the lip of a crag that falls away precipitously on the N and NW to the Breakachy Burn, but it also stands within a larger walled enclosure backing onto the cliff-edge. The dun itself measures about 24m from NNE to SSW by 16m transversely within a massive wall between 4.5m and 5.9m in thickness, in which both faces can be traced round the circuit, in places standing up to four courses high; its entrance is on the SE. The inner of the two outer walls follows an eccentric course around the southern and eastern flanks of the dun some 10m outside its wall to enclose an area measuring about 47m from NNE to SSW by 40m transversely (1.17ha); though reduced to its foundations, it measures about 3m in thickness and is also pierced by an entrance on the SE. The outer is even more heavily dilapidated, following the shoulder of the hillock. The relationship between these outer defences and the dun are unknown.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 31 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2876
Note
Undated description within v2. of Marginal Land Survey typescripts.
