Buaile Chomhnard
Stock Enclosure (Period Unknown)
Site Name Buaile Chomhnard
Classification Stock Enclosure (Period Unknown)
Canmore ID 13240
Site Number NH63SW 1
NGR NH 6214 3327
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/13240
- Council Highland
- Parish Dores
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH63SW 1 6214 3327.
(NH 62143327) Buaile Chomhnard (NR). Supposed Remains of Fort (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1905)
"..... a large circular enclosure .... known as 'Bual Aonarach, the solitary fold; Bual-a-choranaich, or fold of the coronach; Bual Chomhraig, or fold of battle; and Bual Chonard, the fold of the plain. It forms a great circle, about 80 feet in diameter, enclosed by walls built of red sandstone flags of the district.... 10 to 12 feet wide on the average, and still 5 to 6 feet high in parts and 4 feet high in general. It is complete in outline, and seems to have been most carefully constructed, with a probable entrance on the S.E. It encloses a concentric circle, about 40 feet in diameter and about 40 feet from the outer circle.... with a probable entrance on the same side, This inner circle seems to have had standing stones, two of which still remain, one 8 feet X 3 feet, the other 9 feet X 3 feet, of the same red sandstone."
It is said that human bones were at one time found within the enclosure. (ISSFC 1898)
W Jolly 1882; ISSFC 1891
Generally as described above, this circular feature is 44.0m in diameter overall with walls of uncoursed rubble up to 4.0m wide and 1.3m high. A gap, now 1.0m wide in the E probably marks the original entrance.
No trace can be seen of the inner concentric circle described by Jolly (W Jolly 1882). The interior is heather-covered and rises to a maxinium height of 1.3m above the ground level at the entrance. There are two large recumbent stones in the interior and the suggestion that these were standing stones cannot be entirely discounted, although their sockets are not evident.
The position of this site is not particularly defensive there is much dead ground close by on the N. and E. due to its not being on the highest part of a broad ridge, and it actually lies in a very slight hollow.
Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R D L) 3 September 1963.
Not a dun or a fort, but a stock enclosure, probably associated with a drove road which passes it nearby to the W. There is no trace of an inner circle, and the two recumbent stones within are probably fortuitous; but otherwise it is as described by OS field surveyor (R L). The name is still well-known locally.
Visited by OS (A A) 4 March 1970.
Field Visit (18 August 1943)
Dun, Buaile Chomhnard, south of Loch Ashie.
Exactly 3/10 mile south of the end of Loch Ashie, on the crest of a low wide swampy ridge that rises and continues to rise above the ruin to the SW without quite reaching the 800ft contour, are the very ruinous remains of a circular drystone enclosure about 120’ across inside. The wall now consists of a rickle of boulders that has been roughly patched in places as if to provide shelters for sheep. No trace of the original inner face can be detected with any confidence, but some footings at least of the outer face are visible in places under the later patching.
Visited by RCAHMS (AG) 19 August 1943.
OS ref: xix (‘Supposed remains of fort’).
Field Visit (13 April 1957)
Dun Buaile Chomhard, West Town.
This structure lies on the open moor on the crest of a low ridge at a height of 770 feet O. D., 550 yards NW. by N. of West Town house. The remains consist of a very ruinous stone wall enclosing an area measuring about 120 feet in diameter. A few stones of the outer face are visible, but no certain inner facing stones could be seen. The extent of the ruin suggests that the wall originally measured about 9 feet in thickness.
Visited by RCAHMS 13 April 1957.
621332 xix (‘Fort’)
Field Visit (17 November 1992)
A large circular drystone-walled stock enclosure is situated on a heather-clad spur in a clearing within a forestry plantation.
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 17 November 1992.
