Dunan
Fort (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Dunan
Classification Fort (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 38219
Site Number NR51SE 2
NGR NR 5930 1130
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38219
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Southend
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR51SE 2 5930 1130.
(NR 5930 1130) Dunan (NAT) (Fort) (NR)
OS 6" map (1924)
Fort, Dunan. A rocky knoll close to the shore is occupied by a small stone-walled fort. The site is strongly protected on the W by a cliff which falls abruptly for 30m to the shore below, but on all the other sides it is easily accessible, standing no more than 4.5m above the level of the adjacent ground.
The fort has been defended by a single stone wall which enclosed an area measuring 33.5m in length by at least 13.5m in width. On the W the wall has completly disappeared, and elsewhere it has been heavily robbed; its dimensions can be measured only at the SE corner, where it ranges from 2.4m to 3.4m in width. Five earthfast boulders on the crest of a low scarp are all that survive of the wall on the NW, while on the NE the remains have been largely obscured by a dry-stone dyke, itself now ruinous. The entrance is situated near the SE corner and has consisted of a passage 1.2m wide running obliquely through the wall. The interior shows no sign of dwellings.
RCAHMS 1971, visited 1962
The fort is as described and planned by the RCAHMS.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (JB) 16 October 1977
Note (8 October 2014 - 23 May 2016)
This small fortification is situated on a coastal knoll above a cliff some 30m high, which falls away to the shore along its WSW flank. There is little evidence that this flank was enclosed, but elsewhere there are traces of a heavily-robbed wall enclosing a sub-rectangular area measuring 33m from NNW to SSE by 13.5m transversely (0.04ha). The entrance is at the SE corner, where the wall is between 2.4m and 3.4m thick. An old field boundary rides over the wall along the ENE flank of the knoll. The interior is featureless.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2180
