Tiree, Dun Hanais

NL94NW 2 9331 4544.

(NL 9332 4545) Dun Hanais (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

Dun, Dun Hanais: On the level summit of a low grassy knoll, a few metres inland from high-water mark at Rubha Hanais, there are the denuded remains of a circular dun and its outwork, and, except on the S and W, where the dun overlooks the rocky foreshore, there is only a gradual fall of ground to the coastal machair.

The dun, occupying the centre of the broad summit, measures 10.4m in diameter within a dry-stone wall, which has been reduced for the most part to a low grass-covered band of stony debris 3.6m in average thickness. Several stretches of outer facing-stones and three isolated stones of the inner face have survived in position. The outer face is best preserved on the E, where it rises to a height of 0.65m in two courses, but immediately N of the entrance which is situated on the W, the individual outer facing- stones stand 0.6m high. Of the entrance itself only the N passage-wall can be seen; it has been checked for a door 0.9m from the outer end. A single earthfast boulder situated immediately to the S of the outer corner-stone does not appear to be an original feature but probably formed part of a secondary blocking similar to that observed at Dun Hiader (NL93NE 1). The interior is level and featureless.

Presumably to remedy the defensive weakness of the position, the dun has been enclosed by an outer wall, now so severely wasted by stone-robbing that it appears as a partly grass-grown stony scarp 1.5m in average height, at the foot of which several outer facing-stones, some of them of considerable size, project through the turf, as shown on the plan. The wall is best preserved on the W, where the N wall of the entrance-passage and an adjacent length of the outer face can be clearly identified, indicating that the thickness at this point was at least 3m; the entrance does not appear to have been checked for a door. In the body of the wall to the N of the entrance there is a line of outward-facing stonework, possibly part of an internal stabilising revetment, and traces of a similar facing can be seen in the heart of the debris on the E. Such a feature is known to occur in other duns in Northern Argyll, but it is unusual to find it in an out-work. It is therefore also possible that it represents evidence of secondary construction, but the extremely wasted condition of the wall makes it difficult to be certain. The two wide gaps on the N perimeter of the outer wall are probably the result of modern disturbance, the westernmost being largely occupied by the badly ruined remains of a recent sub-rectangular enclosure. Much of the area between the dun and the outwork, particularly on the W, is obscured by debris from small rubble-built structures, now too severely mutilated to provide a satisfactory plan, but probably of no great age.

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1975; E Beveridge 1903.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (J P) 24 June 1972.