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Muck, Caisteal An Duin Bhain

Building(S) (Post Medieval), Fort (Prehistoric), Lazy Beds (Post Medieval), Saddle Quern (Prehistoric)

Site Name Muck, Caisteal An Duin Bhain

Classification Building(S) (Post Medieval), Fort (Prehistoric), Lazy Beds (Post Medieval), Saddle Quern (Prehistoric)

Alternative Name(s) Port Mor

Canmore ID 22137

Site Number NM47NW 2

NGR NM 42186 78648

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/22137

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Small Isles
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Lochaber
  • Former County Inverness-shire

Archaeology Notes

NM47NW 2 4217 7867.

(NM 4217 7867) Caisteal An Duin Bhain (NR)

OS 6" map (1903)

A natural stack rising 15-30 ft above general ground level, adapted for occupation by the building of a wall 7-9ft thick around the summit, enclosing a lozenge-shaped area 95 ft N-S, by 129 ft E-W. The entrance is on the NNE.

RCAHMS 1928

Foundations of one or two probably medieval rectangular buildings may be seen within the fort, but nothing is known of their date.

R W Feachem 1963

Activities

Field Visit (7 July 1925)

Caisteal an Duin Bhain.

On the south-western point enclosing Port Mor, a stack rises 15 to 30 feet above the general level of the ground and has been adapted for occupation by the building of a wall round the edge of the summit. The wall, 7 to 9 feet thick, is built in places entirely of drystone and in other parts of sods stone faced. The area thus enclosed is irregular, roughly lozenge shaped, measuring 95 feet from north to south by 129 feet from east to west. A gap on the north-north-east indicates the entrance, the wall on either side being 7 and 9 feet thick. Towards the north-northwest are foundations of a house, oblong on plan, 12 feet broad within walls 5 feet in thickness, the length being indeterminate. A hollow at the southern angle may represent another structure. (Fig. 313.)

RCAHMS 1928, visited by 7 July 1925.

OS map: Islands of Eigg and Muck (Inverness-shire) lxxiv.

Publication Account (1963)

R W Feachem 1963

Field Visit (10 May 1972)

Caisteal an Duin Bhain, a fort occupying the whole of the summit of a rock stack. The mainly turf-covered wall is built on the cliff edge, and the outer face, preserved to a height of 1.2m in sections along the N face, can be seen for most of the periphery. The base course of the inner face can be seen occasionally, especially in the NE, showing that the wall varied in thickness between about 2.2m and 2.7m. The entrance has mainly fallen away and no constructional details survive. The interior is occupied by the ruins of a late rectangular house with lazy bed cultivation, and the turf-covered traces of at least two other probably rectangular buildings.

Outside the fort in the W a wall about 2.0m thick has been constructed across the head of a slope between the stack and the sea, and a similar wall curves around the N side, with two ruinous rectangular buildings in the interspace. There are traces of a similar wall in the E. These walls appear to be later than the fort and are probably contemporary with the rectangular buildings.

Enlargement at 1:1250

Visited by OS (AA) 10 May 1972 .

Field Visit (18 June 2002)

This fort encloses the summit of a basalt stack that rises to a height of 6m at the S end of a coastal promontory forming the W shore of Port Mor. It is defended by a single stone wall, which follows the lip of the stack to enclose an area on the summit measuring 31.5m from NW to SE by 27.5m transversely. The wall is best-preserved on the N and NE, where the outer face still stands to a height of 1.4m in seven courses, and the inner face on the NE can be followed for a distance of some 14m. Few other inner facing-stones are visible, but on the SE and SW there are further short stretches of the outer face, and in places this is up to 1m in height in five courses. For most of the circuit the wall core rises no more than 0.5m above the interior, but it increases in height to almost 1m at the NW corner, where the wall appears to be at its thickest, and where facing-stones can also be seen on the cliff-edge below the main talus of rubble. The thickness of the wall appears to vary in accordance with the height of the cliffs, ranging from 2m on the high seaward side to 4.5m on the lower N side. The entrance is on the NE, approached by a narrow path from the NW, and was probably no more than 1m broad. The outer wall-face on the NW side of the entrance turns sharply inwards, almost halving the thickness of the wall over a distance of 3.5m, but this arrangement is not matched on the SE.

The interior of the fort is roughly level and contains at least two heavily-robbed buildings and traces of lazy-bed cultivation. The latter overlie four shallow scoops, three of which lie immediately within the wall on the SW, and are probably quarries for the wall itself. The largest building, which has rounded internal angles surviving at one end, is situated close to the NW corner and measures 8.5m from ENE to WSW by 4m transversely within a wall 1.5m in thickness and up to 0.9m in height. On the NNW it has a stone face and a turf core, but on the ENE and SSE it is almost totally robbed-out. A fragment of a possible rubbing stone was found in a scrape at the WSW end. The second building lies immediately to ENE and measures 6.4m by 3m within a low stony bank 1m in thickness. What may be the remains of a third building lie immediately within the fort entrance, comprising little more than a U-shaped turf bank enclosing an area 2.3m by at least 1.4m. The ground falls away sharply from the open NE end into the entrance, and it is unlikely that the structure extended any further in this direction. Below the fort on the N, a wall has been built isolating the stack from the landward approach, but it does not appear to form part of the defences and may be associated with two buildings and two huts described under NM47NW 28.

The fort is depicted as a circular monument on an estate map of 1809, where it is annotated as an old castle. It is also shown on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Argyllshire, Island of Muck, 1880, sheet lxxiv).

A fragment of a saddle quern was discovered in tumble below the NW corner of the fort (NM 42156 78663). The fragment measures 0.45m by at least 0.39m and 0.14m in thickness, and the shallow hollow in its upper surface measures 0.32m by at least 0.26m and 0.05m in depth.

(Muck02, 111-13)

Visited by RCAHMS (ARG,SDB) 18 June 2002

Measured Survey (18 June 2002 - 19 June 2002)

RCAHMS surveyed the fort, buildings and huts at Caisteal an Duin Bhain, Muck between 18-19 June 2002 with plane table and self-reducing alidade at a scale of 1:500. The plan was later used as the basis for an illustration published in 2016 at a scale of 1:1000 (Hunter, fig. 4.11).

Note (12 November 2014 - 23 May 2016)

This small fortification occupies the summit of a rock stack which stands some 6m above the level of the headland on the W side of Port Mor. Its defences comprise a single wall extending around the margin of the summit to enclose an area measuring about 31m from NW to SE by 27m transversely (0.07ha); the wall ranges from 2m to 4.5m in thickness, with extensive runs of both inner and outer face, the latter up to 1m high in five courses. The entrance is on the E, where a narrow cleft provides access to the summit and the N terminal narrows and the outer face turns inwards slightly above it. Two Rectangular buildings with rounded angles lie in the NW end of the interior, the rest of which has been cultivated as a plot of lazy-beds; the latter override four shallow scoops, three of which are set immediately behind the wall and may be contemporary quarries. A fragment of a saddle quern lies amongst tumbled rubble from the wall on the NW. What at first sight appears to be an outer wall built across the headland at the foot of the stack on the N is probably not defensive and may be associated with the later occupation of the site.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2522

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