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Islay, Lurabus
Dun (Later Prehistoric)
Site Name Islay, Lurabus
Classification Dun (Later Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 37641
Site Number NR34SW 8
NGR NR 3423 4347
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37641
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR34SW 8 3423 4347
NR 342 434 Dun
(Undated) information from RCAHMS.
NR 3423 4347 The ill defined remains of a dun situated on a rocky coastal knoll. It is defended on the south and west by natural cliffs and on the east by a stone wall. This wall is 20m long and is spread to a maximum of 4m. An outer wall face is visible, three courses high where best preserved, and the entrance although collapsed can still be discerned. The dun has measured overall 20m north-south by 15m and has an uneven grass covered interior.
Surveyd at 1:10000.
Visited by OS (BS) 3 June 1978.
Field Visit (April 1979)
NR 342 434. Situated on the sloping summit of a rocky crag on the seashore, about 400m E of the deserted Lurabus township RCAHMS 1984, No. 424) there is a dun. On the N and W vertical or overhanging cliffs ranging from 3m to as much as 20m in height, afford strong natural protection, but elsewhere the sides of the crag an only moderately steep, sloping down to the shore in a series of grass-covered rocky terraces.
The dun measures about 19m by 17m internally. For much of the W half of the perimeter, where the cliffs an highest, no artificial defences appear to have been constructed, but on the S and E the dun was protected by a drystone wall, now in a severely denuded condition. When best preserved, on the NNE, the outer face is 1m high in four courses, but elsewhere only a few individual outer facing-stones can be seen, bordering a low bank of debris or stony scarp; no inner facing-stones are visible, and the original wall-thickness is uncertain. A linear spread of rounded boulders lying immediately within or partly overlying the inner edge of what remains of the dun wall on the NE is probably the result of stone-robbing.
The position of the entrance is indicated by a gap 2m wide on the NE, the outer corner of the N side-wall of the passage apparently still in its original position. The interior, which falls as much as 4m from NW to SE, contains a number of sinuous scarps; most are probably of natural origin, but the profile of those adjacent to the dun wall may have been altered by quarrying to provide material for the defences.
Additional protection was provided on the NE by an outer wall of relatively slight proportions, drawn across a natural line of access at the base of the crag and continued thence along the outer edge of a lower shelf. The outwork is poorly preserved, all that now remains being a thin scatter of stony debris and a single length of outer facing-stones. In view of the ease with which the crag may be approached at present from the s, the absence of similar outworks on that side is noteworthy.
RCAHMS 1984, visited April 1979.
Measured Survey (1980)
Surveyed at 1:400. Published at 1:1000 (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 119B)
