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Coll, Dun Morbhaidh

Fort (Period Unassigned), Midden (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery

Site Name Coll, Dun Morbhaidh

Classification Fort (Period Unassigned), Midden (Period Unassigned), Unidentified Pottery

Alternative Name(s) Dun Borbaidh

Canmore ID 21708

Site Number NM26SW 12

NGR NM 2345 6331

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/21708

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Coll
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NM26SW 12 2345 6331.

(NM 2345 6331) Dun Morbaidh (NR) (rems of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

Fort, Dun Morbhaidh: This fort occupies a small craggy hill situated close to the shore. The highest part of the site is on the W, and the summit area, measuring about 30m by 15m, has been protected on the W side by a wall (A on plan) of which only slight traces survive; no inner facing-stones are visible, but two short lengths of outer face can be seen, standing to a maximun height of 0.7m in three courses.

The E half of the hill, which consists of a series of slopes interspersed with terraces and rock outcrops, exhibits some remains of two further walls. The medial wall (B) is mainly drawn round the margin of a terrace, but it also appears in a narrow gap in the rocks to the N of the same terrace, where the outer face is 1.2 m high in five courses. The outer wall (C) has been built round the foot of the hill facing level ground. Like wall B, its remains are very slight, but one side of the entrance- passage and a stretch of outer facing-stones are visible. Within the fort Beveridge (E Beveridge 1903) found the remains of midden material and several sherds of pottery decorated with incised patterns and finger-impressed cordons; two of these sherds are unusual in that they also bear the incised figures of deer. The pottery is now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS Accession nos: HD 322-327).

RCAHMS 1980; E Beveridge 1903; C Thomas 1961.

When visited in 1972, Dun Morbaidh was noted as 'probably as a dun with outworks'; its condition was generally similar to that described by RCAHMS. No traces of any middens were seen.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (I S S) 19 June 1972.

NM 234 633 1 sherd pottery

Sponsors: Univ of Edinburgh Dept of Archaeology, Holley & Assoc.

W M Holley 1995

Activities

Note (6 November 2014 - 23 May 2016)

This small fortification is situated on a coastal promontory that rises from E to W in three terraces to a rocky summit. The latter measures about 30m from NNE to SSW by 15m transversely, and there are remains of a wall extending along its W margin. The terrace below the summit on the E, also carries traces of a wall on its leading edge, and in a gully on the N its outer face is standing 1.2m high in five courses, while at the foot of the knoll on the next terrace down there has been yet another wall; these latter walls are effectively creating a promontory enclosure. On the ESE the surviving fragment of the latter has preserved one side of an entrance. The summit and these enclosed terraces on the E are all featureless, but Erskine Beveridge identified midden material here and recovered an assemblage of decorated pottery, including two sherds bearing an incised deer.

Information from An Atlas of Hillforts of Great Britain and Ireland – 23 May 2016. Atlas of Hillforts SC2496

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