Monument record 384 - DUN LOCH SHIAVAT, LEWIS

NB45NE 2 4759 5925.

(NB 476 593) There is a dun, with remains of a causeway on a small island near the S end of Loch Shiavat.
Viewed from the shore in 1923 it appeared to be approx. 40ft in diameter, with a wall 4ft thick and 4ft high on the NE and S side, reduced to ground-level on the W. The outer face was well-built of large rectangular stones rising, when the water was high, straight from it. RCAHMS 1928.

This dun, at NB 4759 5925, is completely artificial, being built upon the floor of the loch which is about 5ft deep at this point. It consists of a sub-circular drystone wall with a slight batter, about 11.0m NW-SE by 10.0m transversely, rising to 0.6m above the water level in the NE, and completely submerged in the SW, to the depth of about a foot. The outer wall face can be seen throughout the circumference but there is no sign of the inner wall face. There is no causeway.
Visited by OS (A A) 21 June 1969.

'The monument...comprises a late prehistoric or medieval fortified dwelling or dun. The area to be scheduled is circular measuring a maximum of 20m in diameter, to include the dun.'
HS Scheduling Document 29 June 1992.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 6-7, No. 14 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.