The Dunnan, Portankill

NX13SW 8 1417 3229.

(NX 1417 3229) Earthwork (NR)

OS 6" map (1957)

'The Dounnan'. This typical Ayrshire dun comprises an almost circular area c.39' in diameter, situated on the tip of a promonoty defended by an earthen rampart, which may have been faced with stone, as there are a few large stones scattered around the rim of the promontory. This rampart was presumably continuous, though at present it only survives on the landward side, 3' - 4' high.

Outside the rampart is a ditch 9' wide at bottom, 26' wide at top and 8' deep, cut across the neck of the promontory; some 26' to landward, separated by a level area, has been a second ditch 16' wide, while now almost concealed under whins has been yet another ditch, whose dimensions are unobtainable. There are no traces of any internal structures.

RCAHMS 1912, visited 1911; TS 25 September 1953

This work consists of the remains of an earth-and-stone rampart and two outer ditches. It measures internally c.11.5m N-S by c.12.0m transversely, and although covered by whins, no continuation of the rampart or scatter of stones around the rim of the promontory was noted. The entrance lies probably in the SE, where the rampart ends. The first ditch is as described by the RCAHMS, the second concealed by whins and heavily mutilated. The third is not at all evident and if it existed would have been in the cultivated field to the S.

The situation of this work on a promontory, coupled with the double or triple ditches and the absence of a stone enclosing wall suggest that this is not a dun but a fort typical of many found along the coastline of SW Scotland. The name could not be confirmed.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (DWR) 7 February 1972

A small earthwork is situated on a steep-sided promontory of the degraded cliff-line about 150m SSE of the bay known as Portankill and 400m NNE of Mull farmhouse. On the S the earthwork is defended by two ramparts and ditches, which cut across the neck of the promontory. At its ends, the inner rampart, which measures up to 4.8m in thickness by 1.1m in height turns on to the sides of the promontory but, apart from four probable outer facing-stones on the W, there is no evidence that it completely enclosed the interior. The rampart has an external ditch measuring 7m in breadth by 1.2m in depth, and 6.5m beyond it there is a probable second ditch. The latter is about 7m broad by 0.5m deep and

has an external rampart up to 4.8m thick by 0.4m high. There is no visible evidence of a rampart between the two ditches, but the defences are obscured by dense gorse thickets. The wegde-shaped interior of the earthwork measures 12.3m from N to S by a maximum of 10.3m transversely; the position of the entrance is not clear, but may have been at the E end of the inner rampart. Traces of a third ditch have been noted on the S (R Trotter and H E Maxwell 1886) but this area has now been levelled by cultivation. The earthwork is not the remains of a dun (contra RCAHMS Survey of Marginal Lands), but it may well be a small fort of prehistoric date.

RCAHMS 1985, visited (SH) July 1984