Monument record 785 - DUN NA CARNAICH, WESTFORD, NORTH UIST

NF76NE 4 7699 6617.

(NF 7699 6617) Dun na Carnaich (NR) (Site of)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

This ?Clyde group, square chambered cairn is in a field, only 30ft from and 10ft above high water mark. It has been considerably robbed, but still stands about 6ft high to the W of the chamber. The surface is very uneven and is mainly turf-covered. The edge is fairly clear except on the N side where there has ben more disturbance. The cairn appears to be almost square on plan, with rounded corners, about 70 to 75ft across. The worst damage to the monument is a trence about 12ft wide which has been dug to almost ground level across the cairn from NE to SW, involving the destruction of the inner part of the chamber. A fence crosses the SSE side. Across the N side of the cairn there are four large slabs which have stood in an lost straight line to form a facade. The westernmost stone is set at an angle across the NW corner of the cairn; it can be seen (in a hollow dug against its N face) to be 3ft high. The next stone has fallen and now lies horizontally with a space below it. The next stone, which has probably formed the E portal of the entrance, stands 1ft 6 ins high above the cairn material. The stone to the E now leans steeply to the S with its foot covered by turf; its original position can be estimated and the stone has been between 5 and 6 ft high. Cairn material extends 8 or 9ft in front of the facade stones. A fifth stone is set on the edge of the cairn at the NE corner and projects 1ft 9in. Seven orthostats of the chamber or passage are exposed, arranged on an axis bearing NNE to SSW from the centre of the facade. The two rows of stones lean towards each other, and the interior space is now filled with stones. Owing to the uneven robbing of the site, and the slant of the stones, the plan now appears more irregular than is probably the case. The existing structure is 20ft long. The innermost pair of stones is heavier and taller than the others, exposed at the maximum to 4ft high. At the S end the stones are 4ft 3 ins apart. The E stone overlaps its neighbour by 4in.
Visited by A S Henshall 26 April 1962.
A S Henshall Chambered Tombs of Scotland 2 MSS.


The remains of a considerably mutilated cairn, as described by Henshall. Resurveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (J T T) 5 June 1965.

Erskine Beveridge, 1911, North Uist: its archaeology and topography, 253 (Bibliographic reference). SWE12876.

RCAHMS, 1928, The RCAHMCS 9th Report & Inventory: Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles, 77-8, 84, No. 231 (Bibliographic reference). SWE5587.

A. Henshall, 1972a, The Chambered Tombs of Scotland, 514, UST 16 plan (Bibliographic reference). SWE3275.

Centre for Field Archaeology, 2005, Coastal Zone Assessment Survey, North Uist (Bibliographic reference). SWE41070.