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Islay, Ardilistry

Dun (Later Prehistoric)

Site Name Islay, Ardilistry

Classification Dun (Later Prehistoric)

Canmore ID 38033

Site Number NR44NW 9

NGR NR 44687 48176

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38033

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

NR44NW 9 4468 4817. (NR 4468 4817)

Fort (NAT) OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1900)

This 'fort' is not on the outermost eminence, but on the one immediately inland from it. The area enclosed by walling on the rock top is about 30ft by 18ft. There are some outworks on the seaward side. W D Lamont 1960.

The remains of a dun occupy a steep-sided and level-topped promontory, protected by the sea on 3 sides. Roughly oval in shape and measuring overall 19.0m N-S by 10.0m E-W, the walling has tumbled to a base level spread of rubble from 1.0 to 1.5m in width. Only on the south arc do outer facing blocks survive, to a height of 2 courses (0.5m). Two narrow gullies below the eastern edge have been blocked by large stones, and one approach way from landward (north) along a small ridge, has a guard wall 7.0m long of large stones. The dun itself has no discernible entrance. Surveyed at 1:10 000. Visited by OS (JRL) 22 June 1978

Activities

Field Visit (May 1979)

NR 446 481. The remains of a dun occupy the level summit of an isolated coastal rock stack about 1km SE of Ardilistry farmhouse. The position is one of considerable natural strength with cliffs rising up to 7.5m from sea-level on three sides and 5m above a mass of boulders on the landward (N) side.

The dun wall can be followed round the margin of the summit on three sides, enclosing a roughly oval area measuring at least 18m by 8m: for the most cart it survives as a low turf-covered band of core material. On the E side a few outer facing-stones remain in position, but much of the stone from the wall lies scattered down the steep slope below; on the S a line of large irregular boulders forming the outer face of the wall survives together with two inner facing-stones, giving a wall thickness of 2.5m. A line of stones, apparently designed to form a revetment for the upper levels of the wall, was built above a narrow cleft on the NW side of the stack. At the N end, as a result of erosion of the ground-surface, possibly preceded by a rock fall, no trace of facing-stones or core material survives. Access to the summit is possible, though difficult, by way of two rock clefts on the NE, but the original entrance was probably located on the landward (N) side. Just inside the wall on the w there are slight traces of a structure of comparatively recent origin.

RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1979

Measured Survey (1979)

RCAHMS surveyed the dun at Ardilistry in 1979 at 1:400 using plane-table and self-reducing alidade. The plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced size (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 104B).

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