Mull, Torr A' Chaisteil

NM32SW 3 3431 2274.

(NM 3431 2274) Dun (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

Dun, Torr a' Chaisteil: This dun and its outwork occupy the summit of a densely forested hill about 650m SW of Ardfenaig House. The immediate approach from the NE is over gently sloping ground, but on all other sides sheer rock-faces or steep rock-studded slopes, increasing in height towards the W, afford strong natural protection.

The dun measures 21.5m by 15m within a dry-stone wall composed almost entirely of granite boulders. The wall survives as a thick band of core material in which several long stretches of the outer face and a few inner facing-stones can be seen in situ, the best preserved sector being on the NW, where the outer face stands 1.1m high in four courses; the average wall-thickness appears to have been about 3.3m. The position of the entrance is uncertain, but it probably lay on the E, where the wall-debris is appreciably thinner. Much of the W half of the interior is occupied by a rock outcrop, and the E half contains the ruined foundations of two sub-rectangular buildings of no great age.

The outwork, which springs from the dun wall on the N, has been drawn across the line of easiest approach and continued thence along the crest of a low rock face to the SE of the dun. Practically the entire line of the outer face can still be traced, but no inner facing-stones are apparent, and there is only a slight scatter of core material. Many of the stones of the outer face are, however, of considerable size, and this may have discouraged stone-robbing; the largest, situated on the NE, measures 1.6m by 1.1m by 0.6m. The wall is interrupted for an entrance 0.8m wide on the ENE.

Argyll County Council 1914; RCAHMS 1980, visited 1973.

An oval dun, with an outwork.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (DWR) 5 June 1972.

Scheduled as Torr a'Chaisteil, dun.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 29 October 2003.