South Uist, Loch Druidibeg, Dun Raouill

Dun Raouill, Loch Druidibeg.

About 13 miles north of Lochboisdale is Loch Druidibeg, a loch of large area and devious ramifications, and studded with many islets. One of these islets, about 80 yards from the southern shore of the loch, is occupied by a fort, Dun Raouill, which not only is of a very uncommon type but is the best preserved of the South Uist duns. Rectangular on plan and built of good drystone masonry, with its main axis running about north-east and south-west, it measures 71 feet in length externally by 42 feet in breadth. (Fig. 167.) Its massive walls, some 8 feet 4 inches thick on the north-west and south-west and 6 feet 6 inches on the north-east and south-east, attain a general height of from 6 to 8 feet above the foundation, which is laid about 1 foot higher than the level of the loch. Generally the wall is well preserved except at the corners, which have collapsed outwards. The foundation course is built of large blocks which project about 1 foot 6 inches on the south-west and about 6 inches on the north-east. In the interior the wall shows a height of about 4 feet above the fallen debris, and on the north-west and north-east it looks as if crowned by a breastwork on its outer side, 4 feet wide and 2 feet 9 inches high in places, which rises above an intake on the thicker wall below. This, however, is probably merely a ledge to carry the roof of the house built along these sides (cf. RCAHMS 1928, Introd., p. xl). This portion has also been worked over to make butts for sportsmen shooting the wild geese.

The entrance, 8 feet wide in the southern end of the north-east wall, is well preserved, on its south side standing 5 feet in height, and on the north side 3 feet. (Fig. 124.)

The interior of the dun is divided into two. rectangular compartments entered from a passage which runs the full width of the entrance along the inside of the south-eastern wall. The divisional walls show a height of 4 feet above the fallen stones in the interior and measure 5 feet in width. In both chambers the corners are carefully rounded, at which places the building is very fine. The largest chamber, 38 feet in length and 18 feet in breadth, occupies the angle formed by the north-west and south-west walls of the dun, the entrance, quite obscured by fallen stones, being about 8 feet from the western end of its south-eastern wall. The smaller chamber lies transversely across the fort in the space between the larger chamber and the north-eastern wall of the dun; it measures 19 feet 3 inches in length and 13 feet 3 inches in breadth, the entrance, about 2 feet 6 inches wide, being in the southern corner. Opposite the entrance to the dun the shelving bed of the loch has been cleared of stones, and there is an irregular setting of large boulders extending about 15 feet into the loch in the line of the south-eastern wall, possibly a boat harbour.

RCAHMS 1928, visited 27 August 1914

OS map: South Uist l.

RCAHMS surveyed this site by plane-table on 31 July 1924. The resultant plan was redrawn in ink and published at a reduced size in RCAHMS 1928 as Figure 162.

NF 7785 3710 Dun Raouill, Loch Druidibeg. The island is largely natural, though possibly modified to the NE. Its entirety above water is covered by a substantial rectilinear drystone dun. At least three phases of building are evident. The first is the outer walling 1.5-2m thick, slightly denuded around the NE and SW corners, as well as along the W edge. The only gap is at the entrance on the SE corner. The passageway is largely overgrown and filled with rubble. The second phase of building is the construction of the inner chambers, the larger western one possibly being earlier than the eastern one. The walls are lower than the outer skin, roughly 1-1.5m high, and 1m thick. The eastern cell appears to be lower and thinner, 50cm high and 75cm wide, though this may be largely due to differential survival. The walls of the smaller eastern cell and the NW corner of the larger western cell appear to have been consolidated at a later date, apparent in a single skin of stones creating curvilinear ends to both chambers. Both are heavily overgrown with trees and shrubs.

This interpretation is at odds to that of the RCAHMS (1928); they suggested that the remains were mostly of one phase, the upper 'breastworks' designed to hold the roof and modified as shooting butts.

Sponsors: Universities of Glasgow and Sheffield, King Alfred's College.

J A Raven and M Shelley 2003