Dun Rostan
Galleried Dun (Iron Age)
Site Name Dun Rostan
Classification Galleried Dun (Iron Age)
Alternative Name(s) Dunrostan
Canmore ID 39107
Site Number NR78SW 1
NGR NR 7362 8097
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/39107
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish North Knapdale
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR78SW 1 7362 8097.
(NR 7361 8097) Fort (NR) (Dunrostan) (NAT)
OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1924)
Du Rostan: This galleried dun measures 37' in diameter, within a stone wall, average thickness 8'6", widening to 13' on either side of the entrance. The wall now stands 7' high externally, 3'6" internally, but the footings of the outer face are hidden by fallen stones, and there is much debris in the interior. The inner face is vertical, but the outer face has a batter of 1'6" at a height of 7'. The entrance, with door-checks and bar-holes, faces NE. There are three mural chambers or galleries, all entered by short passages made through the inner face of the wall. Such lintel stones as are still visible have in most cases been dislodged, causing the side walls to collapse and block the interiors, so, without excavation, it is impossible to ascertain exact dimensions.
Two boulder-faced rubble walls, drawn across the ridge, provide additional protection on the NE and SE of the dun. The former is reduced to a low core, 5'-6' wide, on the margin of which several outer facing- stones still remain. There is a 4' wide entrance gap through it. One side still retains its facing. The SW wall is better preserved. Its outer face, of massive blocks, survives to 5'6" in height. There is no sign of an inner face, but due to the steep angle of the slope on which the wall is built possibly none existed.
Information from RCAHMS manuscript, visited 1959.
A galleried dun as described by RCAHMS. It is known locally as Dun Rostan.
Visited by OS (DWR) 1 June 1973.
As described in the report of 1 June 1973.
Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (TRG) 24 January 1977.
Field Visit (5 May 1959)
This site was planned as part of the early work for the Argyll Inventories.
Field Visit (May 1985)
This well-preserved dun is situated on the summit of a ridge overlooking Loch Sween, about 600m SSE of Dunrostan farmsteading (Campbell and Sandeman 1964); to the NW and SE the site is protected by cliffs and rock outcrops, but, before afforestation, there would have been relatively easy access along the ridge, and there are short outworks to provide additional protection on the NE and SW flanks.
The dun is roughly circular on plan, measuring 11m by 11.75m within a wall which is constructed of neatly laid slabs and is up to 4m in thickness. Where best preserved the inner face of the wall stands 1.6m high in nine courses, the outer face about 2.5m in as many as twenty-two with a pronounced batter. The two slabs that project from the inner face on the E side of the dun at a height of 0.5m may be the remains of a 'stile' giving access to the wall-head as in drystone forts elsewhere (RCAHMS 1971).
The entrance, which lies on the NE, measures 1.2m in width on the line of the outer face and 1.9m on the inside; the passage, now blocked with rubble, is about 4m long, the walls standing uo to 1.2m high in seven courses on the NW and up to 1.6m in ten courses on the NE, where the top three courses are corbelled. About 1.2m from the outer angles, door-checks, formed of thin orthostatic slabs, are traceable for length of 0.8m on the NE side of the passage and for 1.5m on the NW side.
At least four intramural features are visible; chambers to the E and W of the entrance; a short stretch of a gallery on the SSW; and an unusual complex of median revetments on the S. The mural cell to the W of the entrance measures 3.5m by 1.1m, and although it is now partly obscured by rubble, there may originally have been a staircase at the E end leading up over the entrance to the wall-head. The second chamber, about 1m wide, is entered through a doorway in the inner wall-face some 2m E of the dun entrance; a gallery about 0.5m in greatest width leads off the SE end of the chamber, the combined length of gallery and cell being about 8m. The side-walls are slightly corbelled, but it is uncertain if any of the slabs that currently span the gallery are in their original position. There appear to be two further breaks in the line of the inner face of the dun wall: the first lies on the S, immediately to the W of a roughly rectangular segment of walling, whose internal faces may represent traces of original multi-partite wall-construction, as at dun (NR79SE 13), or possibly the later blocking of a primary mural cell; the second break, on the SW (a on RCAHMS 1988 plan), is now choked with debris, but may formerly have given access to a mural gallery or cell.
The south-westward extension of the summit and the shelves that lie below it on the S and N have been defended by outworks consisting of drystone walls now reduced to low banks of rubble, in which several stretches of the outer face survive in situ; the best-preserved portion of the latter stands 1.3m high in eight courses. No inner facing-stones can now be seen, but the original wall-thickness was probably about 1.75m.
Another outer wall has been drawn across the ridge from cliff to cliff some 18m NE of the dun. It is composed of large boulders and incorporates natural rock outcrops in its course. A long stretch of the outer face remains, but only one possible inner facing-stone can be identified. The entrance lies near the mid-point of the outwork, in line with that of the dun; it measures 0.9m in width with the passage-wall on the NW surviving to a height of 0.55m in four courses.
Visited May 1985
RCAHMS 1988
