Monument record 516 - DUN CHLIF, BARRA

NF60NE 1 6819 0528.

(NF 6819 0528) Dun Chlif (NR)
OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1903)

The remains of this dun (A Young 1958) or broch (RCAHMS 1928), known locally as Dunan Ruadh na Chlif (RCAHMS 1928), are situated on a rocky promontory, surrounded by water at high tides. It comprises a wall varying from about 15 ft thick on the landward side to 5 ft thick to seaward, enclosing an area some 24 ft by 20 ft (described as circular by the RCAHMS)
There are indications of a gallery over the entrance, on the landward side.
The site is surrounded by a shell-midden containing broch-type pottery. The promontory, crossed by the remains of a wall (A Young 1958), is connected to the mainland by the remains of a causeway.
RCAHMS 1928; L Scott 1947; A Young 1958; Information from C F Tebbutt 1959.

Dun Chlif, a galleried dun, is as generally described above. The few facing stones of the circular inner wall surviving among the tumble, to a height of 0.6m, suggest an internal diameter of 7.5m.
The outer wall appears to be oval on plan, measuring 16.0m E to W by 12.0m N to S, and is best preserved along the S edge, where it
survives to a height of 1.2m.
The remains of walling mentioned by Young (A Young 1958) appear as a slight scatter of stones and may not be associated with the dun. Surveyed at 1/10,560.
Visited by OS (R B) 26 May 1965.

G9: On the summit of a small tidal islet is a roughly-built wall of small rocks and boulders enclosing an area 12m by 7m, within which is much tumbled stone. This appears to be a late reduction of an earlier, more impressive monument measuring 20m by 10m, the enclosure wall of which is set further downslope from the summit. Where it survives and is visible this wall is built of selected roughly rectangular stone blocks set in courses. At the S end, the inturned entrance survives four courses high.
Here, and elsewhere, there are traces of midden from which were recovered six sherds of course handmade pottery.
K Branigan 1992d; NMRS MSS 595/7, 595/8.

Iron age sherds from this and a number of other sites were donated to the NMAS by Miss M Harman.
Proc Soc Antiq Scot 1980.

Similar sherds from the site are in the NMS collections.

Branigan and Foster 2000, 36.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 132, No. 448 fig. 192 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

Sir L Scott, 1947, Proc Prehist Soc, 4 (Bibliographic reference). SWE6432.

A Young, 1955-6a, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 291 (Bibliographic reference). SWE8434.

PSAS, 1977-8, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 381 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12884.

K Branigan, 1992d, Discovery and Excavation, Scotland, 87 (Bibliographic reference). SWE25418.

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