Islay, Cnoc A' Chaisteal
Dun (Later Prehistoric)(Possible), Enclosure (Period Unknown)(Possible)
Site Name Islay, Cnoc A' Chaisteal
Classification Dun (Later Prehistoric)(Possible), Enclosure (Period Unknown)(Possible)
Canmore ID 38000
Site Number NR44NW 22
NGR NR 43269 46598
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38000
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR44NW 22 4326 4659.
(NR 4310 4657) Fort
Information from RCAHMS 6" map.
At NR 4326 4660, occupying the summit of a steep-sided knoll, are the remains of a dun measuring overall 12.5m NNE-SSW, by 8.5m. The main surviving features are a slightly dished interior with odd peripheral stone, a heather-covered stony bank 2.0m broad and 0.3m high in the north end, and at the south three stones of a probable outer face. The easiest approach is from the NNE but no entrance position can be identified.
Below the dun on the east is a natural, grassy shelf fringed with outcrop and, in the south, some loose stone which may be an annexe. Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (JM) 23 March 1979
Field Visit (April 1979)
NR 432 465. On the rounded summit of a rocky knoll situated about 900m SSW of Kildalton House and 150m NE of the fort NR44NW 21, there is an enclosure. Steep or veritcal rock-faces provide strong natural protection on the W, but on all other sides the summit may be approached with relative ease.
The severly wasted condition of the remains and the dense growth of heather and scrub which covers them combine to make it difficult to ascertain their precise nature and extent. However, the enclosure appears to measure approximately 12m from NE to SW by 11m transversely over all. On the S margin of the summit settings of earthfast stones appear to indicate that the enclosure was bounded in this sector by a slightly-built drystone wall, or by an externally revetted bank, and natural defences were presumably deemed adequate on the NW; on the NE side the circuit is closed by a length of bank, 2m thick and 0.5m high, which differs so markedly in character and state of presevration from other parts of the perimieter, exhibiting traces of neither an external revetment nor a markedly stony composition, that it may well be secondary. The position of the entrance cannot be determined with certainty, but it probably lay somewhere on the NE, facing the line of easiest approach.
To the SE of the enclosure, and about 3m below the level of the summit, there is a relatively level shelf on whose margin a number of large stones project from a dense growth of vegetation; it is possible that these may indicate the line of an outer wall, but the traces are too indistinct to permit definite identification.
RCAHMS 1984, visited April 1979
Measured Survey (1979)
RCAHMS surveyed the enclosure at Cnoc a' Chaisteil in 1979 at 1:400. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 332A).
