Tiree, Hynish
Fort (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Tiree, Hynish
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Dun Hynish
Canmore ID 21413
Site Number NL93NE 6
NGR NL 9866 3910
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/21413
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Tiree
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NL93NE 6 9866 3910.
(NL 9866 3910) Dun Hynish lies immediately above the disused powder magazine on Am Barradhu. It has apparently measured about 42 ft by 64 ft with a small annexe set at a lower level on the S, while further E along the point are traces of other walls, but the rock has been so quarried in this area that any foundation are now indistinct. Within the dun, Beveridge (E Beveridge 1903) found flints and rounded pebbles in broken turf, but very little pottery. Hand-thrown pottery was found in the dun, however, by John Thomson, Scarinish, in 1960. One piece bore some resemblance to a piece from Dun Beag, Vaul (NM04NW 4) and other bore ornament. Beveridge (E Beveridge 1903) notes the finding before 1903 of decorated pottery near the dun, especially in a small cave above the shore to the SE.
E Beveridge 1903; E R Cregeen 1960.
All that survives of this dun is a stretch of rough walling some 16.0 m long, 1.5 m wide and 0.2 m high, across the NW side of a slight plateau. The remains are no longer recognisable as those of a dun.
Visited by OS (R D) 30 June 1972.
(NL 9866 3910) Dun (NR) (site of)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)
Fort, Hynish: Quarrying and stone-robbing have left only slight traces of this fort, situated on the SW end of the rocky promontory of Am Barra Dubh overlooking the S end of Hynish Bay. All that survive are two short lengths of rubble wall-core, the first of which runs for a distance of 22 m, from near the ruins of a small square building, along the edge of the rocky knoll immediately above the walled gardens of what were formerly the keepers' houses for the Skerryvore light. The second stretch extends for about 25 m along the edge of a disused quarry, on the NE side of a wide gap in the rock-face near by. In each case the remains appear at best as a grass-grown stony bank measuring 1.5 m in average thickness and not more than 0.2 m in height.
RCAHMS 1980, visited 1973.
Note (5 November 2014 - 23 May 2016)
The extent and layout of the possible defences on Am Barra, a coastal promontory at the S end of Hynish Bay, are uncertain. They were first noted by Erskine Beveridge, who appears to describe the remains of a relatively small enclosure measuring about 20m by 13m on the rocky knoll immediately above the old powder magazine (1903, 89-90), though this may have been no more than his assessment of the available space on the summit area; he also refers to the enclosure of a lower terrace on the S, and to traces of other walls disturbed by quarrying further NE. While the OS subsequently identified a stretch of wall reduced to a stony bank no more than 1.5m thick on the NW margin of the summit, RCAHMS investigators also noted remains of a bank extending for some 25m above the edge of the quarry to the NE, thus implying that rather than a small dun on the summit, this may have been a much larger enclosure, and thus accounting for their inclusion of it in the County Inventory for Argyll in the fort category (RCAHMS 1980, 84, no.150). Indeed, if this length of bank above the old quarry is the remains of a defensive wall, the topography of the outcrops would seem to indicate a promontory fort of some 1.5ha in extent, extending down to the rocky shore on the NE and SE. Only further Fieldwork can determine whether this is the case. Pottery was discovered here in 1960 (Cregeen 1960).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2486
Field Visit (March 2022)
NL 95641 40110–NM 04298 44866 The field survey on Tiree by ACFA began in 2016 (DES Volume 17, 2016: 42–43) (DES Volume 18, 2017: 62–63) and is ongoing. The work on Ben Hynish (Beinn Haoidhnis), where 713 archaeological features have been recorded, is now complete.
The fieldwork from 2016 has been published (Black, E. and MacInnes, D. [eds.]. 2018. Tiree, Interim Report 2016. ACFA Occasional Paper 142.) and a complete gazetteer of all recorded features on Ben Hynish is planned for 2023. A book on the history and archaeology of Ben Hynish is in preparation.
Ben Hynish Site 2: Am Barradhubh (Canmore ID: 21413)
NL 98659 39101 James Turnbull’s map of Tiree, 1768–9, drawn up for the Duke of Argyll, has the term ‘Danish Fort’ for the recognised fortified sites on Hynish but not on Am Barradhubh, suggesting that there was no local tradition of a fortification here. It was Erskine Beveridge who, in 1903, claimed to have identified a dun at this location. From his description of the feature, the location of his ‘dun’ is reckoned to be located at a stone and earth bank on the northern extent of Am Barradhubh beside which there is a level area of ground (labelled C on the drawing).
No evidence for a dun was found by the ACFA survey. Two, possibly three, platforms were identified, however, and are labelled A, B and D on the drawings. These are situated on the northern perimeter of Am Barradhubh. Platform A, measuring 9 x 4m is now situated above a quarry excavated during the construction of the Skerryvore lighthouse project, 1838–1844.
Platform B is situated some 5m to the E of A and over an outcrop of bedrock. This roughly square feature measures
6.5 x 6m maximum.
Platform D, again almost square in plan, measures approximately 5.0m in maximum extent. It is situated immediately above and to the S of area C.
RCAHMS describes the site as a ‘fort’ of which only two short lengths of wall remain, one above a small square structure and the other, about 25m in length along the edge of a disused quarry. The first stretch of wall is the one as described above at C and the other at platform A.
In addition to the remnants of walling identified by Beveridge and RCAHMS, further portions were found on the ACFA survey. One, above a quarry on the SW extent of the hill (labelled F) and two short lengths, now in a very ruinous condition, to the E; both sections strung between outcropping bedrock. The maximum extent of the fort is, therefore, approximately 125 x 50m.
Two smooth, circular depressions resembling large cup marks, one split, were noted at area C. They measure 90mm in diameter and are c35mm deep.
;A hammerstone and possible skaill knife were found underneath a rock overhang within the interior of the fort.
Archive: NRHE, WOSAS and An Iodhlan, Tiree (intended)
Funder: Association of Certificated Archaeologists (ACFA) and Calluna Archaeology
Dugald MacInnes – Association of Certificated Archaeologists (ACFA)
(Source: DES Volume 23)
