SC2753: Skye, Dun Garsin   |
Sources: Esri, DigitalGlobe, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, GeoEye, USDA FSA, USGS, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, and the GIS User Community
HER:  Highland HER MHG4876
NMR:  NG 33 NE 1 (11047)
SM:  912
NGR:  NG 3609 3878
X:  136090  Y:  838780  (EPSG:27700)
Boundary:  ✗
This heavily-robbed broch, from which stones were thrown down to build the revetment beside the public road, stands within the remains of a larger enclosure on a rocky hillock that rises some 10m above the more accessible approach from the NW and 30m above the shore on the SE. The wall of the irregular outer enclosure forms little more than a thin band of rubble extending around the margin of the summit to take in an area measuring about 45m from NE to SW by up to 32m transversely (0.13ha). The position of the entrance is not known, though that of the broch faces E. The relationship between the broch and the outer enclosure cannot be determined without excavation; either the outer wall sprang from the foot of the broch, or else it underlies it.
Citizen Science:   | ✗   |
Reliability of Data:   | Confirmed |
Reliability of Interpretation:   | Unconfirmed:   | Falls below the 0.2ha threshold and is conventionally regarded as an outwork to the broch, though there is no reason why it should not have been a free-standing enclosure |
X:  -711389  Y:  7834645  (EPSG: 3857)
Longitude:  -6.39052  Latitude:  57.362845  (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:  30.0m
Boundary Type:   | ✗ |
Second HER:  ✗
Second Current County or Unitary Authority:  ✗
Second Historic County:  ✗
Second Current Parish/Community/Council/Townland:  ✗
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:   | ✗ |
1200BC - 800BC:   | ✗ |
400BC - AD50:   | ✗ |
AD50 - AD400:   | ✗ |
AD400 - AD 800:   | ✗ |
Post AD800:   | ✗ |
Unknown:   | ✓ |
Pre Hillfort Activity:   | ✗   |
Post Hillfort Activity:   | ✓   | Heavy stone robbing |
None:   | No details. |
Photographed by RCAHMS Aerial Survey Programme in 2013
1st Identified Map Depiction (1877):   | Annotated Fort on the 1st edition OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire,Skye, 1881, sheet 28) |
Other (1915):   | Description (RCAHMS 1928, 143, no.482) |
Other (1961):   | Visited by the OS; divorced plan |
Other (1963):   | Scheduled |
Other (1984):   | Description and sketch-plan (MacSween 1985, 41, fig 3) |
Other (1985):   | Description and sketch-plan (Swanson 1985, 884, cited by MacKie 2007, 831) |
Featureless apart from the broch
None:   | ✓ |
Spring:   | ✗ |
Stream:   | ✗ |
Pool:   | ✗ |
Flush:   | ✗ |
Well:   | ✗ |
Other:   | ✗ |
Broch
No Known Features:   | ✗ |
Round Stone Structures:   | ✗ |
Rectangular Stone Structures:   | ✗ |
Curvilinear Platforms:   | ✗ |
Other Roundhouse Evidence:   | ✗ |
Pits:   | ✗ |
Quarry Hollows:   | ✗ |
Other:   | ✓ |
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:   | ✗ |
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:   | ✗ |
None known
Total Number of Breaks Through Ramparts:   | 0  |
Number of Possible Original Entrances:   | 0:   | Not known |
Guard Chambers:  ✗
Chevaux de Frise:   | ✗   |
Single wall
Enclosed Area 1:   | 0.13ha. |
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:   | ✗   | Excludes the broch wall and was probably continuous |
Number of Ramparts:   | 1 |
Number of Ramparts NE Quadrant:   | 1 |
Number of Ramparts SE Quadrant:   | ✗ |
Number of Ramparts SW Quadrant:   | 1 |
Number of Ramparts NW Quadrant:   | 1 |
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:   | ✗ |
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:   | ✗   |
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
Swanson, C B (1988) A contribution to the understanding of brochs, Unpublished Ph D thesis. University of Edinburgh
Atlas of Hillforts:  https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/?query=Atlas_of_Hillforts_4166_0%2CMain_Atlas_Number%2C2753
Wikidata:  http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q31100229
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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.