Loch Borralie

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.