The Dun - Found!

Patient readers of this Diary may remember an entry which described one of our failures - the search for a dun, an iron age fortification, buried in forestry some miles to the south of Swordle Bay (entry here). We set out on a recent Sunday to try again, but this time we enlisted the help of a local guide, Dominic Cooper, who lives in the area and is familiar with its geography. As we left the Kilchoan-Ockle road we were treated with some wonderful views across Swordle to Skye.

Dominic guided us along almost exactly the same route as we took in our previous attempt, deviating only at the very end by less than a hundred metres to bring us to a steep, conical hill protruding above the conifers. The walk was as we remember it, hard in places, with streams and bogs to cross, and some dense vegetation to negotiate, and we only missed the dun because of the almost impenetrable trees.

The dun is roughly circular, occupying the top of a hill so flat it could have been made for it. The little fort is about twenty metres across, with what would have been a wall about the height of a man encircling it. Attacking this, up a steep slope, would have been an unpleasant undertaking.

A structure at the eastern end of the site resembled some of the stone structures we found near Beinn nan Ord, see blog entry here. It seems possible that this is a relatively recent re-use of the dun's stones. More of them had been employed to build a small cairn.

We spent some time speculating on the use of the dun. One suggestion was that it was a refuge for the farmers and fishermen living around Swordle who, when attacking ships were seen approaching across the Minch, could take their animals and possessions and seek refuge within its fortifications. The dun also strategically straddles an old track which may have run from Swordle to Glen More on Loch Sunart.

There is a map of the area here.

Dominic Cooper is a watch repairer and author. His website is here.