Islay, Dun An Rubha Bhuidhe

Dun at Rudha Bhuidhe (north of Claggain Bay), 1.1 mile, south of Carraig Mor, but not visible therefrom. A triangular promontory, rising 10 feet or so from the water and about 45 feet long with a cove on the south side and a sandy bay to the north, cut off by a double stone wall, quite unmeasurable. Behind, the ground rises steeply to the 50-foot contour.

V G Childe 1935

NR 466 540. This dun occupies Rubha Buidhe, the low rocky promontory that forms the N end of Claggain Bay 450m S of Ardtalla. The promontory rises no more than 5.4m above high-water mark, and access is easy from all directions except the SE, where the rock rises relatively steeply. The choice of a position of little natural defensive strength is unusual, especially since there is a convenient rocky hillock only 200m to the SW.

The dun's defences are comparable to those of the two promontory forts (Dun nan Gall and Trudernish Point, RCAHMS 1984, Nos. 156 and 168), situated 1.7 km to the N and 1.5 km to the S respectively, in comprising three walls, of which the innermost incorporates patches of vitrifaction.

The innermost wall (A on RCAHMS 1984 plan) has been severely disturbed, appearing as a heavy band of rubble. Apart from one short stretch of the outer face, no facing-stones are exposed, but the amount of core material, up to 1.4m high, and the scree-like spread of tumbled debris outside it suggest that the wall was between 3m and 4m thick. Small lumps of vitrified stone can be seen in it. The entrance faces NW, and part of the sw side of the passage is visible. Much of the limited area cut off by wall A is now taken up by two large, roughly circular, accumulations of stones, of unknown origin or function, but there can be little doubt that they are not contemporary with the dun.

The middle wall (B on RCAHMS 1984 plan) probably measured 2.4m in average thickness the outer face surviving at best to a height of 0.9m in two courses. The entrance appears to have been at the N end, where there is a 3m gap, now blocked by modern walling.

Wall C, l-3m in average thickness, has been for the most part reduced to the intermittent series of substantial boulders

with which it was faced; the remains now terminate abruptly before reaching the edge of the promontory at each end. The position of the entrance is not clear.

Along the N edge of the promontory, four separate lengths of relatively modern walling extend across gaps in the natural rock.

The extensive beach immediately to the NE offers a good landing-place; a small, stone-lined boat-noost immediately to the SW is of comparatively recent origin.

RCAHMS 1984, visited May 1977.

RCAHMS surveyed the dun at Dun An Rubha Bhuidhe in 1977 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. 112A).

This small promontory work is situated on a low promontory 450m S of Ardtalla. The promontory itself has few defensive qualities, but access from the landward side on the W quarter is blocked by no less than three wall, the inner of which forms a thick band of rubble up to 1.4m high and has small patches of vitrifaction visible in it. The middle wall is about 2.4m in thickness and has long runs of its outer face visible, in places still standing 0.9m high in two courses, while the outer is not only more fragmentary but only measures 1.3m in thickness. Access to the entrance passage through the inner wall, one side of which is exposed on the NW, was probably gained through a gap in the outcrops that separates the inner and middle walls on the N and is now blocked by a modern drystone dyke. The interior measures no more than 16m from NNE to SSW by 11m transversely (0.02ha) and is largely obscured by two piles of stones.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2174