Dun Mhic Raonuill
Dun (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Dun Mhic Raonuill
Classification Dun (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Barrnacarry
Canmore ID 22992
Site Number NM82SW 6
NGR NM 8143 2307
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/22992
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilninver And Kilmelford
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NM82SW 6 8143 2307.
(NM 8143 2308) Dun Mhic Raonuill (NAT) Fort (NR)
OS 1/10,000 map, (1976)
The remains of this dun stand on an isolated rock stack, about 9 metres in height above the shore NNE of Barrnacarry farmhouse. The sides of the stack are precipitious, but the summit can be reached with some difficulty through a narrow cleft on the SSW. The dun wall which encircles the summit of the stack is now reduced to a low band of rubble 3 metres in average width and it encloses an area measuring 19.8 by 10.7 metres. The entrance is no longer visible, but was probably situated at the head of the cleft on the SSW.
South of the dun, the boulder-strewn foreshore is traversed by two arcs of ruined walling of widely differing character. The more northerly of these is drawn round the base of the stack. It terminates on the east against a large, rocky boss and at its NW end it is overlain by a boundary wall of comparatively recent date. The best preserved portion is that immediately south of the dun where it appears as a low grass-grown bank 3.7 metres thick and up to 1 metre in height. Throughout much of its length, outer facing stones of this wall can be seen protruding through the debris.
The outer work consists of an exceptionally well-preserved dry-stone wall which extends for a distance of 60 metres from an area of broken ground on the SE to a morass in the NW where all traces of the wall are finally lost. This wall is more than 3 metres thick in places and long stretches of both inner and outer faces can still be seen. The entrance faces SW and measures 1.1 metres in width internally and about 1.5 metres externally. It is is at present blocked by a displaced stone from the SE side-wall. Because of its better state of preservation and the low tactical value of the ground it covers, it is probable that the outer wall represents a later phase of occupation than the inner wall, though both formed formidable defensive barriers.
Adjoining the outer wall and to the west of the entrance are the remains of a rectangular enclosure measuring at least 12.2 metres in length and about 6.3 metres in average width. The NW end has been completely destroyed but on the SW and SE sides, the enclosing wall is fairly well preserved and measures about 1.5 metres in average thickness. The entrance, at its SE side, is 1.4 metres wide. This enclosure is probably secondary to the main structure.
An isolated stretch of walling to the NW of the stack is up to 1.2 metres in width, but appears to serve no useful defensive purpose, and may be contemporary with the enclosure.
RCAHMS 1975, visited May 1966.
As described. This is a dun rather than a fort.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 scale.
Visited by OS (R D) 18 November 1969.
Note (1 December 2014 - 24 August 2016)
The oval dun standing on a rocky knoll on the E side of a large headland also lies within two outer works that cut off the approach from the landward side; both are usually interpreted as outworks to the dun, but while neither appears to make sense topographically as a free-standing fortification, the differing states of preservation hint that they do not present a unified scheme of defences with the dun. As such, it is possible that they were designed to enclose a much bigger area on the headland, the full extent of which is now lost. The dun itself is oval on plan, measuring about 20m from NNE to SSW by 11m transversely (0.02ha) within a robbed wall about 3m in thickness; several runs of outer face are visible and the entrance is on the SSW. The first of the outer ramparts is set at the foot of the knoll and extends W from outcrops at the edge of the shore until it disappears beneath a modern dyke below the SW flank of the dun. While this wall is reduced to little more than an irregular scatter of rubble with a few outer facing-stones, the outermost wall beyond it is exceptionally well-preserved, with long stretches of both inner and outer face still in place. It measures 3m in thickness and links an area of broken ground on the E to the edge of an area of bog on the W. There is an entrance midway along, immediately W of which a rectangular enclosure appears to have been butted against it. RCAHMS investigators observed that the different states of preservation of the two outer works suggested that they were of different dates, an argument that can also be extended to the dun wall, but it is difficult to establish the true function of either. Notably a modern dyke cuts off the headland on much the same line, and it it possible that the two outer walls are successive versions of the same enclosure, though the line of neither can be detected to the W of the area of bog. Such an enclosure would have cut off an area of 0.6ha.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 24 August 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2585
