Dun Fiadhairt is an Iron Age

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 north 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 Fiadhairt 3.5 kilometres northwest of Dunvegan on

. The

stands on a low, rocky knoll, in the midst of moorland, on a peninsula which juts into the east side of

Loch Dunvegan Loch Dunvegan (Scottish Gaelic: ''Loch Dhùn Bheagain''), is a sea loch on the west coast of the island of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Dunvegan, the village it was named after is located by its southern shore. The settlements of Galt ...

Description

The broch has an external diameter of 16.8 metres and an internal diameter of 9.6 metres. The main entrance is on the west side of the broch and the entrance passage is 3.7 metres long. The passage contains two opposing guard cells. The interior of the broch contains a double cell in the side wall, and a "guard cell" at the foot of the stairs. The rest of the inner wall is occupied by a ground level gallery. The door to this mural gallery goes right through the wall to form a small second entrance. It is not certain if this second entrance is part of the original structure, since other second entrances found in brochs elsewhere appear to be of later construction.

Excavations

Dun Fiadhairt was excavated around 1892 by the Countess Vincent Baillet de Latour. Little information survives about these early excavations, and 20 years later she would excavate

Dun Beag Dun Beag is an iron-age broch located about 1 kilometre northwest of the village of Struan on the west coast of the island of Skye, in Scotland. Description Dun Beag () is situated at the north end of a small rocky knoll. The broch consists ...

with more care. Finds included a quantity of pottery, and a large amount of "iron refuse". Stone finds included a rotary quern, a whetstone, a hammerstone,

spindle whorl A spindle whorl is a disc or spherical object fitted onto the spindle to increase and maintain the speed of the spin. Historically, whorls have been made of materials like amber, antler, bone, ceramic, coral, glass, stone, metal (iron, lead, lead ...

s and a fragment of an armlet. Several glass beads were found of various colours, and in addition there were 59 amber beads in the form of short cylinders which presumably formed a necklace. There was also found a baked clay object, thought to be a Roman votive model of a bale of wool.

References

External links

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