SC2734: Skye, Dun Ardtreck | (Ardtreck Point) |
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HER: Highland HER MHG5019
NMR: NG 33 NW 5 (11064)
SM: 7120
NGR: NG 3350 3581
X: 133500 Y: 835810 (EPSG:27700)
Boundary: ✗
The structure known as Dun Ardtreck is now semicircular, backing onto the cliff-edge on the SW flank of this coastal stack, which falls some 15m sheer into the sea. Elsewhere the cliffs are not quite so imposing, though nevertheless providing a formidable obstacle which was enhanced by the construction of a wall about 2.3m in thickness around the E margin of the summit area, forming an enclosure measuring internally about 40m from NW to SE by at least 17m transversely (0.07ha); this wall barred the only possible points of access and included an entrance 1.2m wide on the ESE. The relationship of this wall to the dun is uncertain, though it is usually considered to be an outwork. The dun was never strictly circular, measuring 13.4m from NW to SE by 10.7m transversely to the present cliff-edge within a galleried wall measuring a maximum of 3.3m in thickness and still standing up to 2.4m in height; a checked entrance lies on the NE, with a guard cell on its N side. The wall seems to have narrowed slightly towards the cliff and turned quite sharply along its edge, where a substantial portion to complete the circuit has fallen into the sea. Excavations by Euan MacKie in 1965-5 indicate that the galleried wall was founded on a contiguous rubble platform and suggested that the wall itself may have stood as much as 6m in height. Small pieces of charcoal recovered from the foundation returned a radiocarbon date of 170 BC - AD 110. There were only slight traces of occupation before the structure suffered a fierce fire, following which the upper walls were taken down and the lintels removed from the passageway, much of the rubble lying in the area between the dun and the wall along the margin of the stack. The ruined shell was subsequently reoccupied, and the objects recovered from its floor deposits include Roman items, while a sherd of E-ware of early medieval date was found on its uppermost surface. While the fallen rubble from the dun fills the space within the outer wall, implying that they were at least broadly contemporary, there is no evidence that the latter was not initially a free-standing enclosure, nor that it continued to function as such during the later phases of occupation.
| Citizen Science: | ✗ |
| Reliability of Data: | Confirmed |
| Reliability of Interpretation: | Unconfirmed: | Outer enclosure falls well below the 0.2ha threshold and is traditionally held to be a contemporary outwork, but it may equally have been a small rot in its own right |
X: -715811 Y: 7828846 (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude: -6.430235 Latitude: 57.334738 (EPSG:4326)
Country: Scotland
Current County or Unitary Authority: Highland
Historic County: Inverness-shire
Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: Bracadale
| Extant: | ✓ |
| Cropmark: | ✗ |
| Likely Destroyed: | ✗ |
| Woodland: | ✗ |
| Commercial Forestry Plantation: | ✗ |
| Parkland: | ✗ |
| Pasture (Grazing): | ✓ |
| Arable: | ✗ |
| Scrub/Bracken: | ✗ |
| Bare Outcrop: | ✗ |
| Heather/Moorland: | ✓ |
| Heath: | ✗ |
| Built-up: | ✗ |
| Coastal Grassland: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| 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: ✗
| North: | ✗ |
| Northeast: | ✗ |
| East: | ✗ |
| Southeast: | ✗ |
| South: | ✗ |
| Southwest: | ✗ |
| West: | ✗ |
| Northwest: | ✗ |
| Level: | ✓ |
Altitude: 15.0m
| Boundary Type: | ✗ |
Second HER: ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority: ✗
Second Historic County: ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland: ✗
Extensive finds assemblage includes Roman items and a sherd of E ware from the broch-like structure
Reliability: D - None
| Pre 1200BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 1200BC - 800BC: | ✗ |
| 400BC - AD50: | ✓ |
| AD50 - AD400: | ✓ |
| AD400 - AD 800: | ✓ |
| Post AD800: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Pre Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Post Hillfort Activity: | ✗ |
| Artefactual: | No details. |
| C14: | No details. |
RCAHMS and Highland HER also hold extensive photographic collections.
| 1st Identified Map Depiction (1877): | Annotated Dun on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire, Skye, 1881, sheet 33) |
| Other (1915): | Description (RCAHMS 1928, 144-5, no.484) |
| Earthwork Survey (1963): | Euan MacKie (2000, 305, fig 3; contours surveyed 1965) |
| Excavation (1964): | Directed by Euan MacKie (1965; 2000) |
| Excavation (1965): | Directed by Euan MacKie (1965; 2000; 2007, 819-828) |
| Other (1984): | Description and sketch-plan (MacSween 198553, fig 76) |
| Other (1997): | Scheduled |
Featureless apart from the broch or dun
| None: | ✓ |
| Spring: | ✗ |
| Stream: | ✗ |
| Pool: | ✗ |
| Flush: | ✗ |
| Well: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Broch or Dun
| No Known Features: | ✗ |
| Round Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Stone Structures: | ✗ |
| Curvilinear Platforms: | ✗ |
| Other Roundhouse Evidence: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
Paving outside the dun
| No Known Excavation: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
| No Known Geophysics: | ✓ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Quarry Hollows: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
| Nothing Found: | ✗ |
Extensive domestic finds assemblage relating mainly to the occupation of the dun. It includes: iron tools; copper alloy ornaments; glass ring-beads; crucible fragments; Samian sherds; Roman melon bead; and Hebridean pottery.
| No Known Finds: | ✗ |
| Pottery: | ✓ |
| Metal: | ✓ |
| Metalworking: | ✓ |
| Human Bones: | ✗ |
| Animal Bones: | ✓ |
| Lithics: | ✗ |
| Environmental: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Broch or dun
| APs Not Checked: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Roundhouses: | ✗ |
| Rectangular Structures: | ✗ |
| Pits: | ✗ |
| Postholes: | ✗ |
| Roads/Tracks: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
See main summary
| Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts: | 1 |
| Number of Possible Original Entrances: | 1: | Excludes the broch itself |
Guard Chambers: ✗
| Chevaux de Frise: | ✗ |
| Entrance 1 (Southeast): | Simple Gap: | Through outer enclosure wall |
Single wall round parts of the summit
| Enclosed Area 1: | 0.08ha. |
| Enclosed Area 2: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 3: | ✗ |
| Enclosed Area 4: | ✗ |
| Total Enclosed Area: | 0.1ha. |
Total Footprint Area: ✗
| Multi-period Enclosure System: | ✗ |
| Ramparts Form a Continuous Circuit: | ✗ | Does not include the wall of the broch or dun |
| Number of Ramparts: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant: | 1 |
| Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✓ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Unknown: | ✗ |
| Partial Univallate: | ✗ |
| Univallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Bivallate: | ✗ |
| Partial Multivallate: | ✗ |
| Multivallate: | ✗ |
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✓ |
| Rubble: | ✗ |
| Wall-walk: | ✗ |
| Evidence of Timber: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✗ |
Galleries
| None: | ✗ |
| Earthen Bank: | ✗ |
| Stone Wall: | ✓ |
| Murus Duplex: | ✗ |
| Timber-framed: | ✗ |
| Timber-laced: | ✗ |
| Vitrification: | ✗ |
| Other Burning: | ✗ |
| Palisade: | ✗ |
| Counter Scarp Bank: | ✗ |
| Berm: | ✗ |
| Unfinished: | ✗ |
| No Known Excavation: | ✗ |
| Other: | ✓ |
| Gang Working: | ✗ |
Ditches: ✗
| Number of Ditches: |
| Annex: | ✗ |
Feachem, R (1963) A guide to prehistoric Scotland. Batsford: London (p 156)
MacKie, E W (1965) Excavations on two galleried duns on Skye in 1964-5, (Interim report)
Mackie, E W (2000) 'Excavations on Dun Ardtreck, Skye, in 1964 and 1965', Proc Soc Antiq Scot 130 (2000), 301-411
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 (2 V): Oxford
MacSween, A (1985) The Broch, Duns and Enclosures of Skye. Northern Archaeology 5-6 (1984-85), 1-57
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: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C2734
Wikidata: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31099758
The online version of the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland should be cited as:
Lock, G. and Ralston, I. 2017. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk.
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