Islay, Lossit

NR 172 562. This dun and its outwork occupy the W end of a rocky ridge running parallel to the seashore on the N side of Lossit Bay, about 1.2km W of Lossit farmhouse. It may be approached from the N with relative ease over grassy rock-studded slopes 13m high, but elsewhere the sides of the ridge are much more broken and, in places, precipitously steep, especially to the W of the dun, where the summit rises to a height of 32m above the level of the shore.

The dun measures 8m in diameter within a single stone wall, probably between 2.7m and 3.5m thick. Although many stones of the outer face and a few of the inner are still in position, the present state of the wall suggests that it may have suffered large-scale bodily collapse or even deliberate demolition, for scattered over the landward flank of the ridge and choking the gullies that face the sea, there is a considerable weight of tumbled core material. A possible explanation for this may be offered by the presence of two transverse spines of rock, which project through the foundations of the wall on the sw and continue some way into the interior. It is conceivable that such irregular ground would have made it difficult to provide a suitable base for the dun wall, and the structure, if carried to an extreme height, might have become dangerously unstable. Occupation of the site could thus have continued only if at least the upper portion of the wall had been dismantled, as in fact occurred at the broch of Dun Mor, Vaul, Tiree. (RCAHMS 1980). It is also noteworthy that the rock spines, by encroaching on the interior, might have appreciably diminished the habitable space within the dun. The entrance is situated on the NE, its position being indicated by a gap in the wall debris about 1.5m wide.

Further protection was provided by an outer wall, drawn along the crest on the N side of the ridge and returning along the W side of a narrow transverse gully about 16m to the E of the dun. The wall is now reduced to a band of stony debris, 2m in greatest thickness, in which several stretches and isolated stones of the outer face survive in position; it serves not only to protect the dun on its weaker side but also to enclose a lower shelf of habitable ground on the E. Most of the shelf is now occupied by the remains of an enclosure of no great age. The outwork is best preserved at the entrance, situated to the NE of the dun, where a portion of the w passage-wall survives to a height of 0.8m in four courses.

RCAHMS 1984 (visited July 1975).

RCAHMS surveyed the dun at Lossit in 1975 at 1:400 using plane-table and self-reducing alidade. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at the reduced scale of 1:1000 (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 118B).

What may be a small promontory work is situated on a the W coast of the Rhins of Islay on the N side of the mouth of Lossit Bay. Previously regarded as an outwork to the stone-walled dun 8m in internal diameter on its summit, the defences comprise a wall about 2m in thickness, which extends along the precipitous lip of the promontory on the E and N, cutting off access from the landward side. Two stretches of the outer face are visible, and four courses of the facing on the W side of the entrance-passage, which lies midway along the wall on the N. The dun occupies the centre of the interior, which measures a maximum of 55m from E to W by 18m transversely (0.08ha), while a later agricultural enclosure occupies the E end, and the W end is bare rock.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2061