Monument record 930 - LOCH NAN CLACHAN, NORTH UIST

NF77SE 4 7678 7382.

(NF 7678 7382) Dun (NAT)
OS 6'map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

The 'island-fort' in Loch nan Clachan is 83ft E-W by 92ft N-S and indications point to its being at least partly, if not wholly, artificial. The surrounding wall is still tracable to a thickness of 5 or 6ft but the interior is ruinous and overgrown.
It is connected to the mainland by a causeway, part of which still shows above water. This causeway finishes at its landward end with a block of stone 3ft by 2ft, three faces of which are covered with shallow pits or cups nearly an inch in diameter.
The site is marked by Blaeu as 'Ylen Dunikrannil'.
E Beveridge 1911; J Blaeu 1654.

The dun is as described by Beveridge although its present measurements are 23.0m E-W by 28.0m N-S. The block of stone at the end of the causeway is covered in natural pits or cups, caused by weathering. Visited by OS (R D) 27 June 1965.

An islet measuring 28m by 23m lies within Loch nan Clachan, and was recorded as being at least partly artificial by Beveridge, who traced walling up to 1.8m thick but noted the interior as ruinous and overgrown. The islet is joined to the north shore by a causeway, now mostly submerged. The islet was marked by Blaeu (1654) as 'Yles Dunikrannil' - that the islet is named at all by this source tends to suggest a phase of medieval occupation. Dunwell 1997

J Blaeu, 1654, Theatrum Orbis Terrerum, sive Atlas Novus, vol. 5, Scotice et Hibernia, Vistvs Insvla Vulgo Viist (Bibliographic reference). SWE10786.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 199-200, No. 69 illust. (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 56, No. 181 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

Andrew Dunwell, 1998, Vallay Strand Project 1995-7 (Unpublished document). SWE41015.