Harlosh Peninsula - chapel, Dun Neill fort, township, enclosure

Harlosh Peninsula

Visited on 6.4.2017

The peninsula is accessed from a small quarry, for parking, at the end of the road from the A863, sign-posted ‘Harlosh’. The whole area is easy walking with some boggy areas.

Cnoc A’ Cladh – Chapel and Burial Ground

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https://canmore.org.uk/site/10860/skye-cnoc-a-cladh-ardmore

Follow the path leading south from the quarry, go through a gate and immediately on your right walk up the small hill and you are in the site of a chapel and a burial ground. The remains area easily seen – two rectangular foundations of buildings are easy to pick out. The smaller one is the remains of a chapel; the larger remains are the walls surrounding the burial ground. Circling the whole top of the hill are indistinct remains of what appear to have been a enclosure wall. The site was last surveyed in 2007 but is, as yet, undated.

Dun Neill – Early Iron Age Fort

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Dun Neil "peninsula"

https://canmore.org.uk/site/10861/skye-dun-neill

Continue west from the above site towards Loch Vatten and you will soon see a small inlet in which a steep-sided rocky peninsula can be seen. This is the site of the dun. Canmore describes it as ‘a dun overlying the scant remains of a fort on a cliff girt coastal rock’. The cliffs are steep and encompass the rock. There is only access on the seaward side. Follow the base of the rock to the right and after turning a slight corner steps can clearly be seen. I did not go up these but the rest of the group did. There is a lot to be seen and the archaeology notes on Canmore offer a good resume.

Possible enclosure – unrecorded, undated

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Leaving the dun and heading south up onto the hill, rather than along the coast, halfway up the hill you will come to a boggy plateau with the remains of what appear to be a large sub-circular or semi-circular enclosure, with a low mound in the centre. This appears on OS maps as a semi-circular enclosure and can be clearly seen on aerial photographs accessible on Canmore (see https://canmore.org.uk/site/search/result?NUMLINK=10861&view=map ). It is not recorded on Canmore.

Township

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https://canmore.org.uk/site/119445/skye-harlosh-point

Carry on south, along the west side of the loch and you will arrive at a ruined village, the remains of four houses and two enclosures. One of the house remains is much bigger than the others. Why? At one end of two of the house is a circle of stones indicating a round partition within the houses. Were they corn stores? The township is shown on the OS 1st Edition 6-inch map (1843-1882).Link to old map on NLS

Probably early to mid 20th century sheep dip

Carry on to Harlosh Point, overlooking Harlosh Island, and then continue back on the seaward edge to the parking area, passing a sea stack and then more remains of buildings and two sheep dip sites. The area has obviously been farmed as a few clearance cairns are visible. Lazy-beds can been seen on aerial photos.

Area around sheep dip showing remains of older buildings

 The word Harlosh is Old Norse. The meaning is unclear but may refer to a river mouth or a big rock. The booklet ‘The Place Names of Skye; a Visitors Guide’ says the name is Old Norse for ‘Rock of the Fire’.