Monument record 1438 - DUN MHIC LEOID, BARRA

NL69NW 2 6475 9960.

(NL 64759960) Dun Mhic Leoid (NAT) (Ruins of) (NAT).
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Castle Sinclair, or Dun Mhic Leoid, is a tower, 18 1/2 ft. by 18 ft. over walls 4 1/2 ft. thick, and was originally of three storeys. In 1924 it stood only 15 ft. high. MacGregor (A A MacGregor 1949) describes and illustrates the remains. There is no history or tradition concerning the castle.
RCAHMS 1928; A A MacGregor 1949.

These remains are as described above. The small island on which the remains stand appears to be artificial. There are vague traces of a possible causeway, now submerged, running from the castle to the S. shore of Loch St. Clair. According to Robins (Mr Robins, Schoolmaster, Castlebay, Barra) this is "Dun Mhic Leoid", a 'dower' castle, and not Castle Sinclair - a name given to it by a 19th. c. French romantic. Visited by OS (W D J), May 1965.

T233: Traces of a substantial roundhouse underlie the late medieval tower.
K Branigan and P Foster 1985.

T233 (NL647996) On the larger part of a figure-of-eight islet in Loch Tangusdale, a tumble of stone masonry, heavily overgrown, marks the position of a probably circular stone structure about 8 m in diameter. The walls survive to about 0.7 m as visible. There is not a massive amount of masonry, nor is there any trace of a double wall, and together with the small overall diameter this suggests that this is not the site of a broch or ARH. Probably a prehistoric roundhouse, but possibly much later.
Branigan and Foster 2000, 26

Also entered as T236 in Branigan and Foster 2000, 26

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 129, No. 440 plan, fig. 186 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

A A MacGregor, 1949, The Western Isles, 139 (Bibliographic reference). SWE11899.

K. Brannigan & P. Foster, 1995, Barra: archaeological research on Ben Tangaval from the end of the Ice Age to the Crofting Commissio, 48, 203, 204 (Bibliographic reference). SWE33223.

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ..., 26 (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.