Dun Phail
Broch (Iron Age)
Site Name Dun Phail
Classification Broch (Iron Age)
Canmore ID 7492
Site Number ND01SW 2
NGR ND 01485 13866
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/7492
- Council Highland
- Parish Kildonan
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
ND01SW 2 01485 13866.
(ND 01481387) Dun Phail (NAT) Broch (NR) (site of)
OS 6" map, (1963)
A very large Pictish tower called Dun Phail crowned the brow of the high ground close to the public road and about halfway between Portgower and Helmsdale. The foundations only of this tower could be traced of late years, and the large stones forming that foundation have been dug up recently for building purposes.
New Statistical Account (NSA) 1845.
Site of Dun Phail -"This name applies to the site of a Pictish Tower. There is not a vestige of it to be seen now, it having been taken away to build fences, etc".
Name Book 1871.
The remains of Dun Phail (name verified) survive as an amorphous turf covered mound of stones up to 0.6m high, to which field clearance has been added. Dry-stone walling juts out of the eroded cliff face on the E side. It appears to be of 'broch-like' construction, if so a great part of the broch has been carried away by erosion.
In 1959 Mr J G Murray (Milton, Gartymore, Helmsdale) came upon a large boulder while weeding on the site of Dun Phail. In trying to remove this boulder he unearthed several small 'finds' which he forwarded to the Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh. Some of these finds have been retained by the Museum and the remainder, including a bone pin, some pieces of iron slag, wood, etc have been returned to him. The boulder 1.0m high by 0.9m by 0.5m forms one side of the still open excavation made by Mr Murray, alongside which is a stretch of walling, 0.8m high, visible for 0.8m.
Visited by OS (J B) 12 April 1976.
In Dunrobin Castle Museum are 'Fragments of charcoal, deer horn and stone cup - from Broch at Gartymore, Helmsdale'.
Information from OS (W D J) 28 May 1960.
Stone cup - Accession no: X57
Information from TS of the Catalogue of Dunrobin Museum by A S Henshall.
Bloom of iron and part of a small triangular crucible found at this site, were donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS) by J G Murray, Gartymore.
Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1962.
Publication Account (2007)
ND01 4 DUN PHAIL ('Gartymore') ND/0148 1387
Site of a broch in Kildonan, Suther-land, near the shore at Gartymore. In 1841 it was reported to have been a "very large Pictish tower" which "crowned the brow of the high ground close to the public road and about half way between Portgower and Helmsdale" [1]. Only an amorphous mound of turf-covered stones remains, the large stones forming the foundations having been dug up for building purposes a few years earlier [1]. Some walling was exposed in 1959 and a few artifacts recovered, including a bloom of iron and a triangular crucible [3]. A stone cup from the site is in Dunrobin Museum together with fragments of charcoal and deer horn [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. ND 01 SW 2: 2. RCAHMS 1911a, 134, no. 387: 3. Proc Soc Antiq Scot 93 (1959-60), 253 (donations).
E W MacKie 2007
