Dun Ardtreck is a D-shaped dun, or "semi-

broch A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...

", located on the west coast of the island of

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...

, in Scotland ().

Location

Dun Ardtreck is located on the

Minginish Minginish ( gd, Minginis) is a peninsula on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is situated on the west coast of the island and runs from Loch Scavaig in the south (which separates Minginish from the Strathaird Peninsula), along the western coast ...

peninsula of

. It is near to the small village of Ardtreck, close to the villages of

Portnalong Portnalong ( gd, Port nan Long) is a small village on north west of the Isle of Skye on the shore of Loch Harport. Portnalong is Gaelic for "harbour of the ships". It was founded by crofters from Lewis and Harris in 1921. Portnalong and Fiskava ...

Fiskavaig Fiskavaig or Fiscavaig ( gd, Fiosgabhaig) is a picturesque crofting settlement on the north-west shore of the Minginish peninsula, Isle of Skye in the Highland Council area. The township extends westward around the coast some 2.5 miles from Ar ...

. It is situated on a rocky knoll on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. The landward side of the knoll is bounded by precipitous rock faces except on the southeast where a small cleft was used for an outer gateway.

Description

Dun Ardtreck is a D-shaped fortification ( dun) of a type commonly regarded as a prototype

or "semi-broch". It was built with the straight side of the fort facing the sheer cliffs. It encloses an area of about 13 by 10 metres. It was constructed with a rudimentary hollow-wall. The entrance is particularly well-preserved with door-checks characteristic of brochs. The entrance to a guard cell led off to the right behind the door-checks. Surrounding the dun is an outer wall which runs along much of the edge of the knoll on the landward side.

Excavations

Dun Ardtreck was excavated by Euan W. MacKie in 1964-5 as part of an exercise to establish the development of the broch. It had been built in two stages: a roughly level platform was constructed and on this was set the galleried wall. Charcoal from the platform was radiocarbon dated to 115 BC. The first phase of occupation seems to have been very short and it appears to have ended in violence and destruction. The second phase was dated from the pottery finds to the middle of the 2nd century AD. The finds from this period included iron tools, bronze ornaments and glass ring-heads as well as Roman

Samian ware Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red Ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas of t ...

pottery sherds and a piece of a Roman bead. Dun Ardtreck is a D-shaped structure with the straight side formed by the edge of a high cliff, along which a narrow wall ran. The thick, drystone wall, the design of the entrance passage, with its door-checks, and the intramural gallery suggests that the building once had the high, hollow wall of the broch towers but had suffered serious demolition at one stage. There are two doorways into the wall gallery, one of which is at a place where the gallery widens, as if to accommodate a stone stair, but no traces of this remain. The height of the wall at the cliff edge is about 6 inches but it rises to several feet at the entrance passage, which faces inland; the structure was built on the rock surface sloping inland from the cliff edge, a rubble platform forming the foundation.. The primary occupation of the dun was a relatively thin floor deposit inside, on which some burnt material lay, implying destruction by fire.

References

External links

* {{Prehistoric Inner Hebrides Brochs in the Isle of Skye Scheduled monuments in Scotland