Dun Cragach
Galleried Dun (Iron Age)
Site Name Dun Cragach
Classification Galleried Dun (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 38968
Site Number NR76NW 1
NGR NR 7108 6805
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38968
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish South Knapdale
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR76NW 1 7108 6805
(NR 7108 6805) Dun Cragach (NR)
Fort (NR)
OS 6" map, (1924)
Dun Cragach, which occupies the summit of a promontory crag, is almost circular, measuring 33' x 28' internally. The entrance, with door-checks, is in the SE, where the wall is 13' thick. A gallery 2' wide runs for at least 13' from the N side of the entrance, ending in a ruined cel. The double, rubble-filled walls have probably cells all round. An outer wall of similar construction lies 25' to NW, with terraces beyond and to E and S. Small enclosures and fields to N.
M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
This is a circular dun, with an internal diameter of 9.0m. The outer facing stones can be traced throughout, and the wall (which is 3.0m to 5.0m wide) stands to a height of four courses in the W. The entrance is in the E and is 1.4m wide; there are no door checks visible. From the N side of the entrance, the remains of a gallery 0.6m wide leads to a cell 3.0m long whilst on the S side are indications of a second gallery. An annexe enclosing a natural terrace, consists of a stone rubble wall 2.0m wide which runs from the cliff face in the SW and ends approximately 6.0m E of the entrance. To the N of the dun a ridge of rock has been supplemented by walling. A small enclosure at the foot of the crag on the NE is undatable.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (I A) 25 June 1973.
NR 7109 6806. No change to the report of 25 June 1973.
Surveyed at 1/10,000
Visited by OS (B S) 15 March 1977.
Field Visit (21 September 1942)
This site was recorded as part of the RCAHMS Emergency Survey, undertaken by Angus Graham and Vere Gordon Childe during World War 2. The project archive has been catalogued during 2013-2014 and the material, which includes notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, plans and photographs, is now available online.
Information from RCAHMS (GF Geddes) 2 December 2014.
Field Visit (May 1983)
Situated on the summit of a coastal stack 1.1km NNW of Cresthengan there are the remains of a dun and its outworks (Campbell and Sandeman 1964); on the N and W the ground falls 15m over rock outcrops to the sea and on the S and E to level grassy fields.
The dun measures about 12m by 10m within a wall 3m thick; its outer face, constructed of substantial blocks, is well preserved, standing up to 0.8m high in three courses, but the line of the inner face has been obscured by fallen rubble. The entrance, on the E, is 1.7m wide on the line of the outer face and 2m at the inner end. An intramural gallery, 0.5m wide, can be traced for more than 4.5m, running from a point 1.5m N of the entrance; there are some indications of a similar gallery on the S side, but fallen rubble, stone-robbing and the construction of a later sheep-pen make this feature too indefinite to plan. Hollows elsewhere within the walls may have been the sites of mural cells.
An outer wall, which springs from the dun wall on the NE and SW, encloses a terrace on the SE which measures about 18m by 8m and is now divided into two unequal parts by a low stony bank. The wall, which has been much disturbed, survives as a spread of core material about 3m thick with several stretches of outer face still in position. The facing-stones are irregular in shape and vary notably in size from those of the dun.
Access to the dun from the N and E has been barred by a series of outer walls drawn between rock outcrops and reduced, for the most part, to low banks of rubble; in the best-preserved stretch, which lies on the far side of a broad gully immediately to the N of the dun, extensive lengths of the outer face can still be seen. There is, however, no indication that any walling ever existed on the seaward side.
A subrectangular enclosure of unknown date, measuring about 17m by 13m and formed of large, roughly positioned boulders, lies 11m to the NE of the dun.
RCAHMS 1988, visited May 1983.
