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Islay, Na Duntain

Enclosure (Period Unknown)

Site Name Islay, Na Duntain

Classification Enclosure (Period Unknown)

Alternative Name(s) Na Duintean

Canmore ID 37598

Site Number NR34NW 22

NGR NR 31338 47908

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37598

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Kildalton And Oa
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR34NW 22 3134 4790

(NR 313 480) There has been another fortification, much smaller than that described on NR34NW 22, situated on a pointed hillock some 20yds south of that site.

W D Lamont 1962.

NR 3134 4790 A possible dun occupies the summit of the steep and pointed hillock, Na Duntain.

Two straight lengths of small flat-coursed walling revet the east and north sides just below the summit area. The east wall is about 3.0m long by 0.5m high and the north 5.0m long and also 0.5m high. There is no other trace of artificial work and the top area is heather covered and featureless with a level occupiable area of a maximum 4m diameter. The only reasonable approach is by a narrow spine of the south west side of the hillock. There is no evidence to indicate that the summit area was ever more extensive.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (JRL) 10 June 1978.

Activities

Field Visit (May 1979)

NR 313 479. This enclosure occupies the summit of a conspicuous pointed hillock, about 15m high, situated on the foreshore some 800m SW of Kintra farmhouse and 100 m SE of the dun Dun a' Chail. Moderately easy access to the summit may be obtained by way of a narrow path leading up the spine from the SW, but on all other sides the ground falls steeply away.

The enclosure measures about 8.5m from N to S by 7.5m transversely over the slight remains of what was probably a single bank of earth, sand and gravel, revetted externally with stone. The bank is best preserved on the N half of its perimeter, particularly on the NE, where the outer revetment stands as much as 0.75m high in four courses, the lowest course set as much as 2.4m below the level of the summit; elsewhere the bank has been almost totally removed by landslips.

The entrance was presumably situated on the SW, facing the line of easiest access, and the interior, now thickly covered with grass and heather, is comparatively level.

Visited May 1979

RCAHMS 1984

Measured Survey (1979)

RCAHMS surveyed the enclosure at Na Duintean in 1979 at 1:400. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 333B).

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