Monument record 1423 - BARRA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE, BERNERAY

NL58SW 4 5485 8023.

(NL 5485 8023) Dun (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Sron an Duin, the promontory upon which stands Barra lighthouse, is occupied by a galleried dun, according to Feachem (R W Feachem 1963).
A massive drystone wall, some of the blocks of which are up to 7 ft in length and over 2 1/2 ft in width, curves convexly towards the land, cutting off an area about 45 yds by 14 yds which has been hollowed out at some time, leaving a ragged parapet of rock 6 to 10 ft in height all round.
Thomas (F W L Thomas 1890) states that the wall was 95 ft in length, 15 ft in thickness and 13 ft high, but the RCAHMS, in 1915 (RCAHMS 1928), found it to be only 9 ft in height on the outer side for the greater part of its length. They could not measure its thickness as the inner side was broken down and debris-covered, except at the N wall of the entrance-passage where it measured 13 1/2 ft. Abutting upon the outer face of the wall are the two precinct walls of the light-house.
Twelve ft from the NW cliff edge along the outer face of the wall is the paved entrance passage, still 5 1/4 ft in height and, at the time of its erection, 4 ft in width. But later walling against the SE passage face has reduced the width to 26 inches for a distance of 5 1/2 ft. There is a door check on the NW wall 3 1/2 ft from the outside, with a bar-hole behind it. Three lintel-slabs remain above the passage covering it for a distance of 3 3/4 ft.
The remains of two galleries, one above the other, are visible in the wall S of the entrance. Thomas (F W L Thomas 1890) says that the ground gallery began at the entrance passage at 8 ft from the outer wall and at that point was 3 1/2 ft wide, while Anderson's (J Anderson 1893) plan shows the S end complete. The RCAHMS found the lower gallery, where extant, to be 3 3/4 ft wide and to have lintel-slabs remaining in three places. The upper gallery retains its outer wall 52 ft in length on the inside, 5 1/2 ft in thickness and 3 1/2 ft in height above the lintel-slabs of the lower gallery.
R W Feachem 1963; RCAHMS 1928; F W L Thomas 1890; J Anderson 1893.

As described above.
Visited by OS (N K B) 21 May 1965.

BY17: A galleried dun, incorporated into the perimeter wall of the Barra Head lighthouse. Much destroyed by 19th-century building activity, the dun wall survives only on the E and SE sides. long thin slabs of the gallery can still be seen built into the inside face.
P Foster 1992a; NMRS MS/595/7.

BY17. Atlantic roundhouse (Iron Age galleried dun). Cliff-top promontory. A galleried promontory dun showing evidence of having once been a massively built structure worthy of the title stronghold. The original form and size of the superstructure now appears to be lost, but it once may have occupied all of the promontory Stron an Duin to the west of the present position of the lighthouse. There is every reason to suspect that when the lighthouse, its ancillary buildings, enclosure walls and pavements were being constructed, not only was the interior of the dun used as a stone quarry, with stone blasted out of the bedrock, but that most of the dun superstructure, including all its interior structural stone fittings, were robbed out for the same purpose. Drill holes still survive on blocks of granite in the quarry area and nothing of the dun survives, apart from a section of its eastern wall. The survival of the east wall is not hard to understand considering the exceptionally high winds encoutered up on this cliff-top. As Miss Bird (1866) recounts, the top of the wall was lowered to allow better vision, but the buildings of the lighthouse were not so stupid as to totally remove an excellent windbreak that had already proved its ability to withstand the Hebridean weather for over a thousand years.
The presence of a gallery, still visible today and proof of architectural complexity, on the inside of the surviving portion of the east wall, plus the sheer massiveness of the masonry stone from which it is constructed, suggest that at least that part of the wall circuit did once reach a considerable height. Perhaps Miss Bird's apparent estimate of 30 ft at its highest point is not so incredible.
The surviving east wall does not terminate when it reaches the sheer cliffs of the south side of the promontory, but for a short distance curves round and follows the line of the cliff edge. This continuation is of much lighter construction and may not have served as a continuation of the gallery. However, it does indicate that the wall circuit may originally have been complete. The size of the blocks of masonry used to construct the visible remains of the east wall are truly massive, some measured at 2 x 1.35 in size and fitted together in a skilful interlocking manner, the whole given a slight better. the walling of the northern portion of this wall, including the present doorway, is of different later construction and was almost certainly built up at the termination of serious quarrying in the interior. The logic behind this assertion lies in the fact that it would not have been possible to work the quarry, removing large quantitites of material, without demolishing a working way through the dun walls. This would have been reguilt afterwards to maintain the windbreak afforded by the walling as a whole. The change in building technique in this part of the wall is clear and it is possible to distinguish reused lintel stones from the internal gallery inserted into the new work as long stabilizing stones. The size, style and butt joint of the doorway prove it to be alien to the dun, as is the walling around the north side.
Inside the dun some of the gallery lintel stones were still visible, but not the inner ring-wall. How much undisturbed deposit remains is not possible to estimate, but if the gallery was open or revealed, as it must have been during the lighthouse building, then it was certainly investigated if only for curiosity. ....
Branigan & Foster 2000, 132

Thomas, F. W. L., 1890, Archaeol Scot, 404 (Bibliographic reference). SWE7756.

J Anderson, 1892-3c, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 341-6 fig. 1-6 (Bibliographic reference). SWE711.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 132-3, No. 450 fig. 190 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

R W Feachem, 1963b, A Guide to Prehistoric Scotland, 179-80 (Bibliographic reference). SWE2141.

P Foster, 1992a, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 88 (Bibliographic reference). SWE25420.

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.