HER:  Highland HER MHG4902 (None)
NMR:  NG 31 NE 1 (11021)
SM:  926
NGR:  NG 3958 1597
X:  139580  Y:  815970  (OSGB36)
The fortification on the cliffs S of Loch na h'Airde on Rubha an Dunain is traditionally classified with brochs and duns, but as it survives today it comprises a single wall drawn in an arc across a headland and is thus a small promontory work, albeit that erosion around the SW and SE margins of the headland may have removed other elements of an enclosure on the cliff-top. The wall itself is set out in a shallow arc on a diameter of 40m-45m to block access from the N quarter. It measures 3.65m in thickness at the entrance on the NNW and still stands up to 3.6m in height where best preserved near the centre of the arc. The faces are neatly built in coursed stone with pinnings, the outer displaying a marked inward batter, and the inner a scarcement about 0.9m above the level of the interior. The now roofless entrance is about 0.95m wide at the outer end and is furnished with deep checks set some 1.15m back down the passage. A doorway in the inner face to the E of the entrance gives access into a gallery extending eastwards from this point within the thickness of the wall; this too has lost its lintels, but its sides have been carried up over 1.2m above the surviving lintel of the doorway, which probably indicates the presence of an upper gallery. At both ends the wall narrows towards the cliff-edge. The interior measures about 24m from ESE to WNW immediately to the rear of the wall by 11m transversely.
Citizen Science:  ✗
Reliability of Data:  Confirmed
Reliability of Interpretation:  Confirmed
X:  -702282  Y:  7793001  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -6.308706231006535  Latitude:  57.16053228311737  (EPSG:4326)
Country:  Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority:  Highland
Historic County:  Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  Bracadale
None
Extant   | ✓ |
Cropmark   | ✗ |
Likely Destroyed   | ✗ |
None
Woodland   | ✗ |
Commercial Forestry Plantation   | ✗ |
Parkland   | ✗ |
Pasture (Grazing)   | ✓ |
Arable   | ✗ |
Scrub/Bracken   | ✗ |
Bare Outcrop   | ✗ |
Heather/Moorland   | ✓ |
Heath   | ✗ |
Built-up   | ✗ |
Coastal Grassland   | ✓ |
Other   | ✗ |
None
Contour Fort   | ✗ |
Partial Contour Fort   | ✗ |
Promontory Fort   | ✓ |
Hillslope Fort   | ✗ |
Level Terrain Fort   | ✗ |
Marsh Fort   | ✗ |
Multiple Enclosure Fort   | ✗ |
Hilltop   | ✗ |
Coastal Promontory   | ✓ |
Inland Promontory   | ✗ |
Valley Bottom   | ✗ |
Knoll/Hillock/Outcrop   | ✗ |
Ridge   | ✗ |
Cliff/Plateau-edge/Scarp   | ✗ |
Hillslope   | ✗ |
Lowland   | ✗ |
Spur   | ✗ |
Dominant Topographic Feature:  None
North   | ✗ |
Northeast   | ✗ |
East   | ✗ |
Southeast   | ✗ |
South   | ✗ |
Southwest   | ✗ |
West   | ✗ |
Northwest   | ✗ |
Level   | ✓ |
Altitude:  17.0m
N/A
In the absence of excavation, there are neither stratified artefacts nor radiocarbon dates to provide a chronology for the defences.
Reliability:  D - None
Pre 1200BC   | ✗ |
1200BC - 800BC   | ✗ |
800BC - 400BC   | ✗ |
400BC - AD50   | ✗ |
AD50 - AD400   | ✗ |
AD400 - AD 800   | ✗ |
Post AD800   | ✗ |
Unknown   | ✓ |
Pre Hillfort:   | None |
Post Hillfort:   | None |
The RCAHMS collection contains a range of photographs taken by visitors to the site, as does Highland HER.
1st Identified Map Depiction (1877):   | Annotated Dun on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Skye, 1881, sheet 49) |
Other (1915):   | Description (RCAHMS 1928, 144, no.483) |
Other (1934):   | Scheduled |
Other (1961):   | Visited by the OS |
Other (1963):   | Description by Euan Mackie (2007, 816-18) |
Other (1986):   | Description by Euan Mackie (2007, 816-18) |
Other (2010):   | Fieldwork project in the environs by Colin and Paula Martin (2010) |
Featureless, though the RCAHMS investigators in 1915 believed there were traces of internal structures
None
None   | ✓ |
Spring   | ✗ |
Stream   | ✗ |
Pool   | ✗ |
Flush   | ✗ |
Well   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
None
No Known Features   | ✓ |
Round Stone Structures   | ✗ |
Rectangular Stone Structures   | ✗ |
Curvilinear Platforms   | ✗ |
Other Roundhouse Evidence   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
None
No Known Excavation   | ✓ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Nothing Found   | ✗ |
None
No Known Geophysics   | ✓ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
Nothing Found   | ✗ |
None
No Known Finds   | ✓ |
Pottery   | ✗ |
Metal   | ✗ |
Metalworking   | ✗ |
Human Bones   | ✗ |
Animal Bones   | ✗ |
Lithics   | ✗ |
Environmental   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
NO APPARENT FEATURES
APs Not Checked   | ✗ |
None   | ✓ |
Roundhouses   | ✗ |
Rectangular Structures   | ✗ |
Pits   | ✗ |
Postholes   | ✗ |
Roads/Tracks   | ✗ |
Other   | ✗ |
See main summary
1:   | Incomplete circuit |
2:   | None |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:  ✗
1. Passage-way/Corridor (North west):   | None |
Single wall cutting off the tip of a headland
Area 1:   | 0.02ha. |
Total:   | 0.02ha. |
Total Footprint Area:  Noneha.
None
✗   | None |
✗   | None |
NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
SE Quadrant:   | 0 |
SW Quadrant:   | 0 |
NW Quadrant:   | 1 |
Total:   | 1 |
Partial Univallate   | ✓ |
Univallate   | ✗ |
Partial Bivallate   | ✗ |
Bivallate   | ✗ |
Partial Multivallate   | ✗ |
Multivallate   | ✗ |
Unknown   | ✗ |
Partial Univallate   | ✗ |
Univallate   | ✗ |
Partial Bivallate   | ✗ |
Bivallate   | ✗ |
Partial Multivallate   | ✗ |
Multivallate   | ✗ |
Gallery
None   | ✗ |
Earthen Bank   | ✗ |
Stone Wall   | ✓ |
Rubble   | ✗ |
Wall-walk   | ✗ |
Evidence of Timber   | ✗ |
Vitrification   | ✗ |
Other Burning   | ✗ |
Palisade   | ✗ |
Counter Scarp Bank   | ✗ |
Berm   | ✗ |
Unfinished   | ✗ |
Other   | ✓ |
None
None   | ✗ |
Earthen Bank   | ✗ |
Stone Wall   | ✗ |
Murus Duplex   | ✗ |
Timber-framed   | ✗ |
Timber-laced   | ✗ |
Vitrification   | ✗ |
Other Burning   | ✗ |
Palisade   | ✗ |
Counter Scarp Bank   | ✗ |
Berm   | ✗ |
Unfinished   | ✗ |
No Known Excavation   | ✓ |
Other   | ✗ |
✗   | None |
✗   | None |
Number of Ditches:  None
✗   | None |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 185)
MacKie, E W (2007) The Roundhouses, Brochs and Wheelhouses of Atlantic Scotland c.700 BC-AD 500: architecture and material culture, the Northern and Southern Mainland and the Western Islands. BAR British series 444(II), 444(1), 2 V Oxford
Martin and Martin, C and P (2010a) 'Rubh' an Dunain, Highland (Bracadale parish), field survey'. Disc Exc Scot, New Ser, 11 (2010), 88
RCAHMS (1928) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Ninth report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. HMSO: Edinburgh
Atlas of Hillforts:
Wikidata:
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and should be cited as:
Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk
Document Version 1.1