Dun Na Ban-oige
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Dun Na Ban-oige
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 22830
Site Number NM80SW 15
NGR NM 8377 0493
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/22830
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilmartin
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NM80SW 15 8377 0493.
(Centred: NM 838 049) Dun na Ban-oige (NAT) Fort (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1974)
The remains of a very large fort crown a steeply-rising crag on the north side of Bealach Mor (Kintraw Hill), covering an area measuring about 850' by 500'. There are remains of a massive wall across the col in the NE and at one point there is a full 25' between faces. The outer face, though buried in debris, stands to a height of 6' or more. This wall curves inward along a gully to an entrance near the centre, traceable though ruined. The inner face of this wall is level with the rising ground inside it. There are outer works on both east and west. That on the west is round and, in size, is as big as many duns. Footings are traceable all round the crag, though above the sheer cliff on the east, they are very slight. On the west, at a lower level, are several round or oval huts inside a turf dyke, with others under the cliff at the SW. The wall of the fort contains very large stones, long lintels and many rebated stones. The site is strongly defensive and commands a wide prospect to east and west.
M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
Generally as described, though the enclosed area measures about 200 metres E-W by 170 metres transversely. No certain entrance was found but it is probable that access was by a terrace in the natural rock on the east side. Although only intermittent traces of walling were found, the amount of tumble suggests that the wall encircled the summit. Apart from a few shielings, the interior is featureless.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 scale.
Visited by OS (R D) 10 March 1970.
Field Visit (May 1983)
A fort having an area of about 1.75ha occupies the broken summit of Dun na Banorge, 1.lkm WNW of Salachary.
The ground falls steeply on all sides except the NE, where it slopes to a narrow col between the fort and an adjacent hillock. The wall, which was probably continuous around the margin of the summit, has been partly destroyed by landslip and considerably disturbed by stone-robbing for buildings, pens and field-walls of relatively recent date. It survives as an intermittent band of rubble not more than 4 m thick with a few outer and inner facing-stones still in position, and is best preserved on the NE, where the natural defences are weakest. The site of the entrance is unclear: it may have been on the N (a), where the wall-debris thins at the head of a broad gully running steeply up from lower ground, or on the E (b), where a sheep path now enters the fort and the course of the wall changes to take in a lower terrace (although the line of the wall appears to continue across the path).
Apart from a number of stone-clearance heaps, as well as traces of agriculture and the stone-built structures referred to above - all of recent date - the interior of the fort contains no significant features.
Visited May 1983
RCAHMS 1988
Measured Survey (19 May 1983)
RCAHMS surveyed Dun Na Ban-oige fort on 19 May 1983 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:100. The plan of the fort was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:250 (RCAHMS 1988a, 162).
Note (26 November 2014 - 18 May 2016)
This fort takes in the summit of Dun na Ban-oige, which forms the leading edge of the higher ground E of Kintraw. Irregular on plan, its wall can be traced intermittently around the margins of the upper part of the hill to enclose an area measuring about 190m from E to W by 140m transversely (1.75ha). The wall has been heavily robbed in some places and lost to landslips in others, but elsewhere it forms a band of rubble about 4m thick and occasional facing-stones are visible. Nothing can be seen of the entrance however, which is either at the top of a steep gully that forms a re-entrant in the N side, or it is where a sheep path approaches a dogleg in the line of the wall crossing a terrace on the NE flank. Apart from a series of rectangular buildings and pens relating to more recent occupation, the broken and rocky interior is featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2556
