Tiree, Dun Na Cleite
Findspot (21st Century), Fort (Period Unassigned), Midden(S) (Period Unassigned), Hammerstone(S) (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Tiree, Dun Na Cleite
Classification Findspot (21st Century), Fort (Period Unassigned), Midden(S) (Period Unassigned), Hammerstone(S) (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 21412
Site Number NL93NE 5
NGR NL 9740 3850
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/21412
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Tiree
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NL93NE 5 9740 3850.
(NL 9740 3850) Fort (NR) (rems of) Dun na Cleite (NR)
Os 6"map, Argyll, 2nd ed., (1900); OS 1:10,000map, (1976)
Fort, Dun na Cleite: Occupying one of the strongest natural defensive sites on Tiree, this fort stands on a prominent rocky headland overlooking the shore 1.4 km SW of Hynish. Above sheer cliffs up to 6 m high on the sea- ward (S) side and steep grassy slopes to landward, the headland rises to a height of 42 m O D over a series of shelving rock-terraces to a small summit area, half of which is occupied by an enormous boss of bare rock 4.6 m high.
The defences consist of a complex of walls designed to block virtually every approach to the summit. The bulk of the walling is concentrated in the NW; elsewhere the configuration of the rock renders artificial defences almost unnecessary, and thus walling is virtually confined to the top of the cliff and even there only intermittently. The walls are aligned so as to incorporate expanses of outcrop at several points.
The uppermost wall (A on plan, q.v.), which has enclosed an area measuring about 21 m by 17 m, is now largely reduced to a light spread of rubble; on the NW, however, it retains a stretch of outer facing-stones some 15m long and standing at least 0.8m high and at best 1.1m high in five courses. A second, shorter, stretch of the lowest course of the outer face immediately to the N is unusual in being set back some 3m from the first. The reason for this is not clear, but such an arrangement would allow room for an entrance through the re-entrant angle, and the walling immediately outside and below it would provide an effective screen.
About halfway down the slope below wall A the second major wall (B), after following the outer edge of a rocky terrace dips downwards before terminating near a pronounced angle in the third, and lowest, wall (C). The remains of wall C can be seen following the top of the cliff on the NW for a distance of nearly 50m. Thereafter, round the S half of the headland, only one short stretch is visible blocking a gully between the rock-masses; it reappears for 15m on the E side and finally for another 30m at the NE corner.
Within the interior there are a number of level grassy areas amongst the rock outcrops which are suitable for habitation, but no trace of dwellings are visible on any of them.
Beveridge (E Beveridge 1903) notes that kitchen middens occur especially on the E and contain bones, pebbles, shells, broken hammer stones and pottery, some of it decorated including some with raised zig-zag near the rim. Horses' teeth, fragments of metal ore, and artificially pointed bones are also found.
RCAHMS 1980, visited 1977; E Beveridge 1903.
Divorced survey at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (R D) 28 April 1972.
Note (4 November 2014 - 4 August 2016)
This fort occupies a precipitous headland on the southernmost coast of Tiree, which rises in a series of terraces to a rock boss 4-5m in height on the summit. On the N of this boss, there seems to have been a relatively small fortified enclosure, though its perimeter, which is reduced a few bands of rubble with several runs of outer facing stones, in one place standing between 0.8m and 1.1m high, displays little coherence on plan (see RCAHMS 1980, 80-1, no.143, fig 67). Elsewhere there are a series of ruined walls that block gullies and extend along the edges of terraces to form an enclosure measuring about 90m square (0.72ha), on the NW following the leading edges of no less than three separate terraces stepping down this flank of the promontory. The entrance into this outer enclosure is not visible, but access to the summit of the headland was probably gained most easily by mounting a series of interconnected terraces on this side, perhaps accounting for the complexity of the defences here. The interior, much of which is made up of bare rock, is featureless, though there are several grassy natural platforms amongst the outcrops. Erskine Beveridge found midden material containing bones, shells, pottery and hammer-stones here (1903, 90-3).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 04 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2485
Metal Detector Find
NL 9739 3855 A later prehistoric cobble tool was found casually on a path among tumble immediately outside the NW rampart on the lower slopes of Dun na Cleit (Canmore ID: 21412). It is an ovoid beach-worn cobble, apparently granite, more pointed towards one end. Both ends show pecking wear from use as a pounder. The narrower end has a small, poorly developed area of wear where individual peck-marks are still visible. The broader end has a much more developed, larger area of pecking, extending in a narrower strip up one edge.
Such double-ended pounders are found widely in prehistory but are most common in the Iron Age; cobble tools in general became less frequent in the early medieval period, and an Iron Age date is most likely. Length 103mm, width 91mm, thickness 60mm, mass 940g.
The tool was disclaimed as Treasure Trove and donated to An Iodhlann, Tiree’s Historical Centre
Fraser Hunter – National Museums Scotland
(Source: DES Volume 23)
