Links Of Dunnet North

ND27SW 10 2216 7027

(ND 2216 7027) Cairn (NR)

OS 6" map, (1960)

A sandy mound 16 to 17ft high, around the top of which much stone is visible, but no structure is exposed. The diameter of the top is about 46ft, but the character of the remains is indefinite.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

A prominent oval natural hillock with some stone exposed in the top which shows no evidence of artificial placing.

Visited by OS (I S S) 9 March 1972.

Broch, 30.0m in diameter and 8.0m high. (Wrongly numbered as 658 on distribution map.)

R J Mercer 1980.

At ND 2214 7028, in a consolidated dune landscape, is an elongated mound, 58.0m E-W by 36.0m wide towards the W end, where it attains a maximum height of 3.5m. The summit is roughly level, 13.0m across with random stones forming no intelligible pattern strewn on and around it. Rabbit scrapes in the upper part of the mound show an admixture of stone fragments and sand, whereas burrowing in the lower levels reveals only pure sand. In the few places where it can be examined, the humus layer is very thin, which may demonstrate that the sandblow is a relatively recent occurrence.

There would appear to be two main alternatives:

(i) that there was a massive structure, ie. a broch, onto which sand has blown leaving only a few of the loose topmost stones exposed, or

(ii) an entirely natural dune on the summit of which a fairly flimsy costruction, now unintelligible, has been erected.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (N K B), 21 May 1982.