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Dun Na Cuaiche
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Dun Na Cuaiche
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 23635
Site Number NN11SW 2
NGR NN 1003 1013
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/23635
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Inveraray
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NN11SW 2 1003 1013.
(NN 1003 1013) Dun na Cuaiche (NAT) Fort (NR)
OS 6" map, Argyll, 2nd ed., (1900)
Dun na Cuaiche comprises a rectangular area c. 150' by 150' with a massive turf and stone wall, occupying a high conical stop at the end of a higher ridge, with a very steep drop to Inveraray.
M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
A fort, measuring internally 78.0m E-W by 40.0m N-S within a massive earth-and-stone rampart 2.6m high internally where best preserved in the W. The entrance was probably on the NW, where a modern path leads to the summit. In the interior are several level platforms of uncertain origin, and a possible sub-rectangular foundation.
The easiest approach to the fort on the N is protected by an outwork consisting of an earth-and-stone rampart 110.0m long and 2.5m high with a central entrance. The W end of this rampart has been obliterated by a modern path.
Revised at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (D W R) 13 March 1973.
Note (4 December 2014 - 18 May 2016)
A fort is marked on the summit of Dun na Cuaiche on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Argyll and Bute 1874, sheet 133.6), surrounding a tower built in 1747-8 under the supervision of William Adam. It was included as a fort in the survey of mid-Argyll by Marion Campbell and Mary Sandeman (1962, 53), an identification confirmed by the OS surveyor who in 1973 revised the depiction at 1:2500, but omitted from the prehistoric monuments in the RCAHMS County Inventory for Mid-Argyll published in 1988, in which the various elements noted by the OS were considered to be part of the landscaping works around the tower that stands on the summit (RCAHMS 1992, 417-19, fig). Nevertheless, the enclosure is roughly triangular, measuring 65m from E to W by 40m transversely (0.2ha) within an earth and stone rampart which at the W end stands 2.6m in height internally; an entrance lies at the NW corner where the modern path approaches the summit. The ground falls away steeply from the summit on all sides except the N, and here an outer rampart of similar dimensions has been drawn across the slope over a distance of about 110m, broken only by an entrance with well-defined terminals. Several scarps and shallow sub-rectangular platforms are visible within the interior. While it is unlikely that the visible earthworks incorporate the remains of an earlier Iron Age or early medieval fortification, local tradition has it that this commanding summit was garrisoned in the mid 17th century (Campbell and Sandeman 1962, 53).
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 18 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2606
