Islay, Fang A' Chaisteil
Fort (Period Unknown)
Site Name Islay, Fang A' Chaisteil
Classification Fort (Period Unknown)
Canmore ID 37999
Site Number NR44NW 21
NGR NR 43032 46619
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37999
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR44NW 21 4302 4661.
NR 430 467. Dun/Homestead, Loch an t'Sailein. The end of a vertical faced ridge of smooth rock, 15ft to 20ft high, on the E side of the loch, is cut off by a stone wall passing down the NW side. Here there is considerable tumble before the wall swings across the site. A gully at the S end is blocked by walling.
F Newall 1964.
At NR 4302 4661, on a low ridge beside the west shore of Loch an t-Sailean, is a fort, encompassing the flat-topped summit area, and measuring overall some 32.0m, NE-SW, by 15.0m. The wall is traceable on the NE, NW and SW in a band of overgrown rubble core, sparsely spread 2.0 to 2.5m broad. No wall is discerned on the SW side naturally defended by steep cliffs. In the NW of the interior is a small outcrop topped by a small inexplicable piece of coursed stonework.
No entrance is visible, but it must have been in the NE at the easiest means of approach.
To the NE of the fort are successively lower annexes bounded in the NW and SE by low cliff, and in the NE by vestigial remains of boulder-faced walling, up to 0.8m high.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (JM) 23 March 1979.
Field Visit (May 1979)
NR 430 466. This fort stands on a low rocky NE-SW ridge on the E side of Loch an t-Sailein, about 1.1km SW of Kildalton House and 230m SW of the enclosure at Cnoc a'Chaistell. The ridge has little natural strength, access being easy from all sides except the SE, which is a steep rock face up to 4.5m high. The sea approaches the ridge on the SE and SW only at high tide.
The fort wall, which encloses an area measuring at least 29m by 13m, survives mainly as an irregular band of rubble core material, but a stretch of outer facing-stones standing to a height of 0.4m in three thin courses survives on the NW, and another stretch can be seen crossing a gully on the SW. On the SE only a slight and intermittent scatter can be traced, but on the NE the wall debris is much thicker, suggesting that the wall was more substantial on this side, where there is no natural defence. The position of the entrance is not clear, but it was probably situated on the NW near the head of a narrow gully.
Within the interior there are the slight remains of a building of unknown date. Outside and below the main fort wall on the NE two additional lines of walling were constructed between rock outcrops to enclose two relatively flat terraces on different levels. The lower wall now consists of a band of rubble with a stretch of outer facing-stones surviving, and others displaced nearby. The upper wall is in a similar condition, but the outer face is composed of very large rough boulders.
RCAHMS 1984, visited April 1979
Measured Survey (1979)
RCAHMS surveyed the fort at Fang a' Chaisteil using plane-table and alidade at a scale of 1:400. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 97A).
Note (3 October 2014 - 23 May 2016)
A small fortification occupies a low coastal knoll on the SW shore of the peninsular WNW of the Ardbeg distillery. Roughly oval on plan, it measures about 29m from NNE to SSW by 13m transversely within a wall largely reduced to a band of rubble with occasional outer facing-stones (0.03ha). To the NNE where the crest of the knoll descends in two terraces, another wall extends around the lip of the upper, while a third can be seen on the tip of the lower. No entrance is visible, though a narrow gully on the NW provides ready access, and the only feature visible within the interior is one angle of a rectangular building. Even including the terrace enclosed on the NNE, the interior of this enclosure is so small that, it is more akin to a dun than a small fort.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2167
