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| Iron age lookout (photo Iain Dick) |
It had been a wet few days previously and the route from track to broch was quite muddy in places - slips were inevitable on the muddy edge of the burn - the first person to slip went back into the bank of the burn - the second - not to be outdone - decided to swim backstroke in the burn - sorry no photos of that! In spite of being wet through before even getting to the broch, she carried on - and gets lots and lots of brownie points for that.
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| Iain's photo of fairy |
Close examination of the broch revealed that the fairy - spotted at the reccie - was still in residence - damaged wings had prevented her fleeing - or perhaps it is simply an enchanted broch!
We could clearly see all the aspects mentioned in Canmore/AOC report.
1) there is clearly a cell to the right of the entrance - nicely corbelled but full of rubble and it appears to have been accessed from the entrance passage as a lintel is visible very low down
2) There is evidence of walling above the entrance which the AOC report describes as the curved end of a cell or gallery. We felt that the roof of the cell to the right of the entrance would have been higher than the floor of this cell/gallery so had a few questions about this. did it simply go over the entrance and no further? where was the access?
shows a photo of this.
Canmore
https://canmore.org.uk/site/11143/skye-dun-suladale
describes a door check on either side of the entrance - 5 - 6 " deep (in 1921), Mackie in 2007 (also on Canmore site) says:
the 2015 AOC report says:
We believed that we could see possible bar holes - but to date I have not got any photos of these.
sadly, I didn't take any photos of the entrance passage - sorry! I was a bit too nervous of the broken lintel :)
ReplyDeleteneed a drone:-)
DeleteHello everyone,
ReplyDeleteDun Suledale is an interesting Broch. I liked the curved walls at the entrance but when Joan and I visited about 2003 the walls were in better condition. The walls were built to compress attackers into a smaller area to restrict using battering ram. The walls would also stop any strong winds from the West entering directly into the entrance.
The only reason I can come up with for the corbelled cell and small entrance is for keeping guard dogs in case invaders got in through the front door.
It could have been used as a log store and the small entrance would have allowed air to pass through the stacked logs to keep them dry.
I wished we had more time to talk about Broch Field walls.
Martin Wildgoose Archaeologist explained to me that sometime when trying to find a Broch or Dun, it,s not the broch you see first it,s the Field Walls.
The walls are about 4 to 5 feet high with the same spread at the bottom and meander over the landscape.
Martin excavated a Field Wall to see how it was constructed to prove it was built and not natural.
The walls can be seen when the sun is going down or satellite mapping shows up Broch Field Walls.
Dun Borrafiach has a good example with many Field Walls all leading to the Broch. Joan and I were glad that the Field Walls were there as the area was very swamped after heavy rain.
The Field Walls were I think, to hold cattle and other animals or to keep out animals from growing crops.
I look forward to hearing from anyone. Alan of Ose.
The perimeter walls around Suledale are quite hard to see now - but they are there and the line can be followed around the edges of the "plateau" as shown on AOC and Canmore plans. They may well have been to hold cattle/stock - but it is not a huge area so I think wouldn't have been a permanent place for stock
ReplyDeleteHello Joy,
ReplyDeleteThe Field Walls I was talking about, can run out from the broch sometimes for a mile and covered many acres.
I found out, once I had trained my eye to see Field Walls from a distance it helped me find a broch or a fort.
The other thing to look for is areas of light green grass on raised outcrops of stone or raised areas surrounded by light green grass.
I have two such areas to investigate, one is a rock out crop with the shape of a Fort with what looks like a right angled wall inside the Fort. Why I am saying Fort is that the shape of the out crop is oval and not round.
The other object I want to investigate is a possible Cairn on the next hill and from the satellite picture it is surrounded by regular spaced stones in an oval shape.
I cannot be over excited until I am actually there, I have been disappointed in the past but you have got to keep looking.
Martin Wildgoose has already cared out a Field Survey about 2 miles from where I am going to investigate. The areas that have been surveyed have a orange line round them on the Field Survey Map on Canmore.
The area I am going to look at, has not been surveyed.
Thank you for responding to my report Alan of Ose.