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Dun Na Maraig
Fort (Prehistoric)
Site Name Dun Na Maraig
Classification Fort (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 39542
Site Number NR89SE 10
NGR NR 8525 9072
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/39542
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kilmichael Glassary
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR89SE 10 8525 9072
NR 852 906. Dun na Maraig occupies the summit of a ridge rising from the marsh. The N and E sides, where there are traces of walling, are defended by sheer cliffs. The wall of massive blocks is noticeable on the W and SW, and the total area enclosed is 145' x 115'. The entrance, where the wall is 16' thick, is in the S. It is 6' wide, and has a guard-cell on its W side; also a bar-hole. There may be a gallery running W from the entrance. Probable outwork to SW.
D Christison 1904 ; M Campbell and M Sandeman 1964.
NR 8525 9073: The fort is generally as described. The entrance on the SW contains no positive evidence of a bar-hole. A depression in the wall to the N of the entrance possibly indicates a guard-cell, but no gallery is evident. The rocky interior of the fort is featureless. All that remains of the outwork to the S is a short stretch of large outer facing stones up to three courses high, which probably once defended an area measuring c.40.0m NW-SE by c.20.0m NE-SW.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (DWR), 10 March 1973
A fort as described in the previous information.
Surveyed at 1/10,000
Visited by OS (BS) 28 March 1977
Field Visit (May 1982)
This fort is situated 450m NNW of Achnabreck on the summit of a heavily wooded hill, the N and NE sides of which are formed by cliffs, while elsewhere the ground falls steeply over a series of rock scarps and terraces (Campbell and Sandeman 1964).
The wall of the fort, which encloses an area measuring about 43m by 37m and takes in a rocky knoll with a grassy apron below it, survives as a bank of rubble about 3m thick and 0.6m in average height, although on each side of the entrance, where the wall thickness increases to 4.5m, it is up to 1m high. On the S and E sides of the knoll the walling, which is here of slighter construction, is founded about 0.4m from the rock edge. The entrance, situated on the WSW, measures 2m at its outer end and 1.5m at the inner. There is a bar-hole 0.16m by 0.15m and 0.85m deep on the W side of the entrance-passage at a height of 0.5m above the ground level. Below the fort wall on the SW a natural terrace is partly enclosed by a rough outwork constructed of large boulders. The oblique track which approaches the summit from the SW is bordered by isolated blocks of similar proportions, an unusual and not readily explicable feature.
RCAHMS 1988, visited May 1982.
Measured Survey (8 May 1982)
RCAHMS surveyed Dun Na Maraig fort on 08 May 1982 with plane-table and alidade producing a plan at a scale of 1:100. The plan of the fort was redrawn in ink and published at a scale of 1:250 (RCAHMS 1988a, 164).
Note (29 October 2014 - 23 May 2016)
This small fortification takes in a hilltop girt with precipitous crags on the NE and SE and elsewhere steep slopes. Roughly oval on plan, it measures 43m from N to S by 37m transversely (0.12ha) within a wall largely reduced to a band of rubble but with several short runs of external face visible and increasing to 4.5m in thickness at the entrance. The latter is on the SW, apparently tapering from 2m in width at the outer end of the passage to 1.5m at the inner end and displaying a bar-hole in the NW wall; it gives acess to a lower terrace on the S measuring about 40m in length by up to 20m in breadth, which on the S is edged with a rough wall of large blocks and boulders; the sides of the entrance track dropping down the slope below it are likewise studded with large stones.
Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2464
