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Loch Borralie
Dun (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Site Name Loch Borralie
Classification Dun (Period Unassigned)(Possible)
Canmore ID 4812
Site Number NC36NE 5
NGR NC 3840 6753
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/4812
- Council Highland
- Parish Durness
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC36NE 5 3840 6753.
(NC 3840 6753) Dun (NR)
(Undated) annotation on OS map.
NC 3840 6753. Situated on a rocky eminence above Loch Borralaidh, on its NW side, are the considerably mutilated remains of a circular structure which would appear to be a dun. The remains of a rampart of earth and stones surmount the perimeter of a knoll. The rampart is 1.2m high and spread to 2.5m on the N side of the knoll. The S segment has been robbed of its material but the perimeter is still definable as a low scarp. Immediately abutting it on the W side is a rectlinear hollow, running N-S and measuring 24m in length and 0.7m to 1.2m in depth. The W and N sides of this are strongly banked, the scarp being 1.5m high. This is possibly the remains of an outwork of the dun into which a rectangular building has been built. There are traces of a ditch on the NE side of the dun but this has been filled in.
The entrance is not apparent.
On the W of the rectilinear-shaped hollow is a small rectangular house foundation with an accompanying enclosure bank on the S.
Seventy metres N of the dun is a modern sheepfold with two rectangular house foundations and an enclosure bank joined these on the W side of the fold. These structures would appear to be of post-Clearance date.
Visited by OS (J L D) 10 April 1960.
This circular structure with its adjoining earthworks is generally as described and planned by the previous field investigator. It is turf-covered, and has been so severely robbed, presumably to build the adjoining sheep-fold and ruined houses (NC36NE 67) that no details of its construction are exposed. Its position on a rocky eminence and the amount of debris remaining leave little doubt that it was at least a defensive homestead, but it cannot with certainty be classified as a dun (see also NC36NE 10).
Visited by OS (J B) 27 May 1980.
Archaeological Evaluation (July 2002)
As part of the Historic Scotland Human Remains Call Off Contract, Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) undertook an archaeological evaluation of the find spot of a human skull from a cairn at Loch Borralie, Sutherland (NGR NC 3790 6761). Excavation recovered the remains of two burials beneath the cairn and established that the cairn was multi-phased.