Islay, Gleann Bun An Easa
Earthwork (Period Unknown)
Site Name Islay, Gleann Bun An Easa
Classification Earthwork (Period Unknown)
Canmore ID 37274
Site Number NR24NE 3
NGR NR 28616 46578
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37274
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR24NE 3 2861 4657.
(NR 2860 4657) Earthwork (NAT)
OS 6" map (1900)
An almost inaccessible, roughly oval earthwork, about 90ft across, with ditch, rampart and traces of causewayed entrances at the north and south ends. It appears to be very well preserved apart from small exploratory mutilations in the low rampart. A resistivity survey in 1961 indicated an anomaly only where the causeway met the edge of the earthwork.
The site is compared to the raths of Ireland (P Lewin and F Celoria 1958).
W J T Goodenough 1961; F Celoria 1959
An earthwork situated on a west facing and gently sloping headland in a defensive situation. It is sub circular measuring 39m in overall diameter. The predominantly earthen rampart, only in the south quadrant, is up to 2.5m wide and 0.6m high and the ditch averages 4.5m in width and 0.9m in depth. There is a 4.5m wide causeway on the south east, uphill side; the alleged second causeway is probably a sheep track and there are other mutilations in the west and north east.
The featureless interior, levelled into the slope, has been considerably built up on the downhill side to a maximum height of 1.7m above ground level and the ditch is more substantial on this side. There is no evidence of an associated field system.
Surveyed at 1:10000.
Visited by OS (TRG) 18 June 1978
Field Visit (May 1979)
NR 286 465. Situated at a height of about 100m OD, on level ground 200m SSW of the mouth of the Srithan Bun an Easa, there is a circular earthwork measuring about 23m in diameter within a bank and external ditch. Immediate approach from the landward (E) side is over rough moorland, and to seaward the site commands a wide view to the W and SW, and also to the N and NW, to the mouth of Loch Indaal and the Rhinns; to the NE, however, visiblity to the S end of Laggan Bay is blocked by the headland of Maol nan Ron.
The principal visible feature is the ditch, which is broad and flat-bottomed; on the N and W the sides are of ragged profile and the bottom is irregular, being broken into shallow basins separated by partly undug transverse spines. On the SW, where best preserved, the counterscarp is exposed to a height of 0.7m and the scarp 1.7m; on the NW the ditch is partly filled by a growth of moss and peat at least 1m deep. The bank, made of material dug from the ditch, survives only round the S half of the circuit, standing at best 0.5m high internally on the SW. There is a well-marked entrance on the SSE, and the interior is level and overgrown by a layer of spongy moss and peat up to 1.25m deep.
Visited May 1979
RCAHMS 1984
Measured Survey (1979)
RCAHMS surveyed the earthwork at Gleann Bun an Easa in 1979 at 1:400. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 332B).
