Dun Sleadale Part 1

Some background information on Dun Sleadale in prearation for our field visit on 28/2/17.

Photo by Su who visited Dun Sleadale exactly a year ago - hope we get some blue sky too! For more photos of Su's visit see her blog:

http://stayathome2010.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/wednesday-1230-pm-dun-sleadale-broch.html

 






The location of this broch is intriguing and quite different from others we have seen.  Quite a way from the coast and with no clear line of view to the coast nor, so far as I can see just now, to any other brochs.

The most recent field survey was by Euan Mackie in  2007 (see canmore: https://canmore.org.uk/event/587050)

He describes it as

“probably ground-galleried It stands in a particularly interesting situation, on a rocky knoll about 160m (550 ft) above sea level and up on a steep hillside about half a mile from cultivated land; the knoll itself rises from a level terrace…….” farmland is on the flat seaward end of Glen Oraid, a fine, isolated, V-shaped glaciated valley running down from high moorland to a curved sandy beach in a bay bounded at both ends by high cliffs. Thus the valley bottom, limited in area to about 0.25 square miles and containing the village of Talisker, is completely isolated by mountain and moor. The farmland is green and fertile, in striking contrast to the surrounding moor, and is formed of a thick deposit of alluvial soil which has presumably washed down from the surrounding land over many millennia. Marks of old rig-and-furrow cultivation are very clear near the sea when viewed from the moors above, and this suggests that the low ground was cultivated in Iron Age times also.

The broch overlooks this small stretch of cultivable land, and it is difficult to resist the conclusion that it was intimately connected with the Iron Age farmers who presumably used it. Moreover there are steep slopes and a difficult burn gully between the farmland and the broch which would have meant a journey of at least twenty minutes up from the fields below. This situation might suggest that – at this site at least – any danger was expected from the sea; as with many another Hebridean brochs a land attack sweeping down on to the farmland from the mountains would cut the villagers off from their refuge, assuming that they lived beside the fields. The broch itself is out of sight of the sea but a short extra climb of about 60m (200 ft) gives an extensive view of the western sea approaches; a lookout there could give ample warning of a raid.”

Plan from Swanson - see reference below

The elder trees shown on Carol Swanson's plan are now sadly withered and probably quite dead.

What we need to look for on our visit (from Euan Mackie on Canmore):

1. The entrance -on the east-north-east . 2 ft 10 in (86cm) wide at the exterior, which is unlintelled.  Several lintels are still in position further in and the door-frame is apparent
2.  A fine scarcement of the ledge-type is preserved in the 2-4 o'clock arc … (I can never work out what Mackie means when he refers to positions by the clock 2-4?? Is that NW to SE?)
3. Another stretch of gallery, or a cell with a few lintels in position, just clockwise of the main entrance at 7 o'clock; there are several courses of stonework exposed under the roof and in 1915 the outer face stood 8 ft (2.4m) high above the ground outside These lintels are much higher than those roofing the entrance and the gallery must technically be an upper one.

It is also worth looking at the excellent detailed description offered by Carol Swanson:

https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/ handle/1842/19332