Monument record 1427 - DUNAN RUADH, PABBAY

NL68NW 1 6128 8760.

(NL 61288760) Dunan Ruadh (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The remains of Dunan Ruadh, a broch or galleried dun.
"On the edge of the rocky bluff facing the land are the ruins of a curved wall, in the heart of which there has been a narrow gallery. Only a small portion of the south-western arc of the building remains, the other parts having been completely removed. The wall has been about 13 feet 6 ins. thick. and while one or two courses remain in position on the outer face, the mound of stone stands about 7 feet in height. A small part of the inner wall of a gallery is traceable for a short distance".
RCAHMS 1928.

Dunan Ruadh is as described above except that the width of the wall is about 4.6m. Although there are no traces of walling other than at the landward end, it is unlikely that this feature was a broch: it is probably a galleried promontory dun.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by (N K B) 21 May 1965.

NL 612 876 Rescue excavation of the last fragment of the broch on the island of Pabbay showed that its circuit wall was comprised of four separate concentric rings of walling, which in one place still stood ten courses high. An unexpected dip in the bedrock on which the broch is built preserved 1m of occupation deposits, from which bone, shell and pottery was recovered, together with fireplaces and complete sheep burials.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland.
P Foster 1996

NL 6128 8764 Dun Ruadh (PY10) A broch-type structure which survives as only a remnant of the southern arc of its main wall with a small undisturbed area of deposits within the arc. Although most of the structure and its deposits have been swept away, the surviving remnants show that the site was occupied when the walls had collapsed down to c1m in height. In midden refuse dumped on top of the wall, spilling down onto the collapsed corbelled roof of one of the wall chambers, was a bronze pictish fist pin datable to around the 6th-7th century AD, which is thought at present to give an indication of the final phase of occupation. The excavation of the surviving deposits prior to their eventual destruction by coastal erosion, the clearing of fallen masonry from the face of the surviving wall, and the stone by stone recording of the structure in both elevation and plan was completed in 1998.
Foster 1998, 98

PY10 (NL61288765) Atlantic roundhouse (broch Dunan Ruadh)
Location: On small north-east-facing coastal peninsula.
Description: Excavated in 1996-97. From the excavations came a range of Iron Age pottery fragments and considerable faunal remains and a 7th-century AD Pictish 'fist' pin from the upper deposits that indicates a long period of occupation from the Iron Age into the early mediaeval. When the excavation commenced only an arc of the main southern double outer ring-wall survived, with a small area of undisturbed internal occupational deposits protected within the arc. This is in contrast with the picture suggested by the 1st edition 6 in. OS map of 1880, which depicts a fully circular enclosure inside which a three-sided, subrectangular structure is situated with its open end to the east. No sign of this structure now exists or was evident at the time of excavation. The majority of the internal area as it would have been was bare unrelieved bedrock. A subrectangular shaped building is at odds with the known evidence for a circular broch structure, and consequently it is most likely to be a later construction of material stripped from the broch superstructure. The recovery of a 'fist' pin of Pictish date in a deposit of fish bones dumped over the broch main wall indicates a late occupation of the broch at a time when the superstructure was in a degraded state. Mediaeval pottery has also been recovered from the upper levels, and it is possible that the subrectangular building relates to this period. However, although some late occupation more than likely did occur on the remnants of the broch, it is even more likely that this particular illustrated structure is an early modern shelter or shieling that has been swept away by storms in the past hundred years.
Brochs and duns are not usually built in what may be considered preferred settlement locations and PY10 is no exception, being sited out on an exposed northern coastal promontory of the island. Whether this is the only occupation site for the whole of the island's population during the late Iron Age or whether there are other sites to be found buried in the dunes as on Mingulay (MY384), or under the peat, cannot yet be ascertained.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 83-84

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 131-2, No. 447 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

P Foster, 1996b, Discovery and Exacation, Scotland, 103-104 (Bibliographic reference). SWE38141.

Council for Scottish Archaeology, 1998, Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (Bibliographic reference). SWE41173.

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