Description

The monument comprises a dun, or small drystone fort, of later prehistoric date.

The monument lies on the SW end of a coastal promontory about 190m NNE of the headland known as Dun Haunn. The summit of the rocky boss occupied by the dun rises only 5.5m above the level of the promontory on the NE, but it is protected on all other sides by sheer or overhanging cliffs some 40m high.

The dun measures 10.5m by about 7.5m within a drystone wall drawn around the margin of the summit area. No trace of the wall survives on the W, where it has presumably collapsed over the edge of the cliff, but elsewhere it appears as a grass-grown band of stones, in which several stretches of outer facing-stones can be seen.

The site of the entrance may be indicated by the slight depression in the wall core on the E, near the head of a natural inclined ramp that gives relatively easy access to the summit from the promontory. Additional protection has been provided by two outer walls.

The first, now largely reduced to a scatter of core material and partly overlain by a recent boundary wall, follows the outer edge of the ramp already mentioned; after a short gap, probably the site of an original entrance, it continues towards the edge of the cliffs on the SE side of the promontory.

The second, surviving as a stony scarp 1.4 m high in which a few massive outer facing-stones are still visible, has been drawn in an irregular arc from the cliff edge N of the dun to the base of the rocky boss. Immediately outside the second outwork there are the remains of a sub-rectangular enclosure of recent date.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. It is circular in shape with a diameter of 40m, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to contribute to an understanding of later prehistoric defended settlement and economy. Its importance is increased by its proximity to other monuments of potentially contemporary date, for example, the fort 450m to the south.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NM 34 NW 1.

Bibliography:

RCAHMS (1980) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona), Edinburgh, 109, No. 207.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland