Dun Colbost revisisted

Broch entrance and outer wall

Plan by Swanson

Directions and Access:
NG 2055 4947

The broch is situated on Colbost Common Grazings, on a rocky knoll above the Dunvegan to Glendale Road.

There is room to park a  car  at a small quarry (approximate grid reference NG 2023 4964) or at the layby opposite Skye Silver.  A track leads up the hill from the quarry.  As the track ends, the broch comes into view and is reached by crossing boggy moorland. Approximately 10 minutes walk.

The Broch

In the original RCAHMS description of Dun Colbost (1904) no entrance was visible but they believed “it was probably in the west”.  The broch was described as being in “poor condition”.  Nevertheless, subsequent excavations have revealed tantalising but inconclusive information hinting at a more sophisticated structure.  Glendale Trust  is currently investigating the possibility of obtaining funding for a more in depth excavation.

An excavation, carried out in 1989, exposed the entrance to the broch as well as interesting evidence of a cobbled area outside the broch.    

 

The entrance itself is obscured by a "danger" sign

Camera inserted behind danger sign

Further excavation in 1990 added little knowledge but in 1994, the area between the broch wall and the outer “perimeter “ wall revealed evidence of stone paving, covered drains, and a hearth.  

 Curiously there seems to be no entrance in the outer wall which corresponds to the broch entrance.

There is a terrace south of the entrance which is mentioned in the brief description of 1990 excavation but no suggestion is offered as to its purpose.  In a modern house, it would make a lovely flower bed!

Possibly  lintel over intra mural gallery in East

The inside of the broch is full of tumbled stones and it is difficult to see much evidence of the mural gallery mentioned on canmore and no scarcement can be seen.

There appears to be a very small structure inside the broch  just north of the entrance – perhaps a sheiling or bothy created after the broch had been destroyed.   

Internal structures north of entrance

circular hole crossed with lines

One of the stones in the North West Sector  has an intriguing circular hole about 3" deep - it looks too perfectly circular to be natural.

An enclosure/sheep fank to the east of the broch has clearly made use of many of the stones.  This enclosure is shown on the 1877 map of the area.

 

 

Portion of Inverness-shire (Isle of Skye), Sheet XXI (includes: Duirinish)

'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland'

http://maps.nls.uk/index.html

Sheep fold - the wall to the north show better workmanship those the wall to the south

References:

https://canmore.org.uk/site/10833/skye-dun-colbost

http://theglendaletrust.org/dun-colbost-broch-working-group/

A MacSween & D Reed in Discovery and Excavation in Scotland 1989, 1990. 1994.

Swanson, C B. (1988) A contribution to the understanding of brochs, Unpublished Ph D thesis, University of Edinburgh.  Retrieved 17/3/17

https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/2624/browse?value=Swanson%2C+Carol+Barbara&type=author

 

Dun Borrafiach

Directions:

Park at Trumpan car park (NG223612).

The walk to the broch is  around 10 km/6 miles, fairly flat and mostly along a clear track but, as usual boggy, in places.


Details:
 
The photograph from Canmore    https://canmore.org.uk/collection/1470265
dates from around 1921 and shows rather more stonework than we were able to see on Tuesday,21^st September.   I hope someone else may be able to contribute a modern equivalent.

Dun Borrafiach is a scheduled monument – but not sure at all that this means much in terms of conservation.

The broch is described by Donaldson Blyth[1] as being in a ruinous state but he says access is along an easy pleasant walk with fine views of the Little Minch and Outer Hebrides (weather permitting one assumes).  He forgot to mention that it can be exceedingly muddy – or as one of our party said “wet even when it is dry”.  Along the way, there is a footbridge across a wide burn which is in just as ruinous a state as the broch – rotting pieces of wood with gaping holes – fortunately there are some strong steel girders underneath so if you chose your crossing spot carefully there is little danger of it collapsing but for the unwary there is the danger of putting your foot through one of the gaping holes.

The 1921 plan shown on Canmore ( https://canmore.org.uk/site/71398/skye-dun-borrafiach) reveals very little detail when compared to other plans we have seen.  There is no mention of any excavations.  Miers [2]suggests it dates from first millennium BC. That gives plenty of scope as most brochs can be placed in this timescale.

This part of the island is now uninhabited but near the broch there is ample evidence of earlier settlements.  Ruined dykes and long houses –the outlines seemed to indicate structures rather larger than the average blackhouse.   Canmore also mentions a nearby hut circle and even a kiln but I hadn’t realised this before our trip so we did not search for these structures...

As for the broch itself, Canmore tells us that

Dun Borrafiach occupies a rocky outcrop overlooking the shallow basin of the Borrafiach Burn. The broch measures 16.5m in overall diameter with the outer face still standing to a height of 2.7m on the S half in eight courses including many massive blocks;

The blocks are indeed massive and the building work is quite similar to what we have seen on other Skye brochs.  It really is quite difficult to imagine how they manoeuvred such massive blocks without the aid of modern machinery.  Such thoughts always lead onto a discussion about whether the brochs were a status symbol or were they for defence.  The time and manpower required to gather these massive stones and then build the broch would certainly not have been available in times of war or frequent skirmishes.  It was commented that they might have been anticipating problems in their future.

Canmore goes on to say...

 At a point about 0.8m from the outside there is an upright jamb-stone rising some 1.1m above the rubble. The jamb-stone is 0.5m broad and 0.13m thick.

Jambstone

Jamb stone and entrance

We did find traces of the intramural gallery but unfortunately I have no photos of this.  Hope one of the others will add some images later.

Talking of images - one final point before we leave Borrafiach - hitherto unseen evidence of iron age art - seen on one of the tumbled stones near the broch wall:

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[1] Donaldson-Blyth, Ian, (1995) In search of prehistoric Skye. Thistle Press

[2] Miers, Mary (2008) Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide,  Rutland Press