Monument record MHG18059 - Skye, Dun Gearymore

NG26SW 1 236 649.

Dun Borrofiach, NG26SW0020A

Brochs are round, tower-like houses, their monumental size intended to display the wealth and status of the agricultural communities who lived in them. They were occupied in the later Iron Age and are common in the north and west of Scotland. (41)

Dun Borrofiach sits on a rocky outcrop; the ground rises steeply behind the broch, while in front it slopes more gently down to the sea. Like Dun Gearymore, it lies above an old trackway, which was once the main road linking the west side of the Waternish peninsula with the rest of Skye and which may, therefore, be of great age. (61)

In spite of the fact that the broch is surrounded by evidence of later settlement and cultivation (particularly shieling huts), its walls still stand to around 3m in height. The quality of the stonework of the tower is clearly visible. Inside the double-skinned walls, cells and a passage way can be explored. (52)

Armit, I., 1997. Celtic Scotland. Edinburgh: Batsford.

Ritchie, G., and Harman, M., 1996. Exploring Scotland’s Heritage. Argyll and the Western Isles.
Edinburgh: HMSO, 29.

RCAHMS. 1928. The Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. Edinburgh: HMSO, 159, No. 510.

[Stopped editing here!]

Information from SCRAN Project, March, 2000

1.01 NG 2337 6422 Building (240)
1.02 NG 2336 6416 Building (241)
1.03 NG 2335 6406 Shieling-hut (242)
1.04 NG 2357 6486 Farmstead (243-247)
1.05 NG 2357 6488 Hut-circle (248)
1.06 NG 2358 6481 Farmstead (249-251)
1.07 NG 2368 6492 Building; Enclosure (252, 253)
1.08 NG 2367 6490 Shieling-huts (254-256)
1.09 NG 2365 6492 Hut-circles (257-259)
1.10 NG 2373 6498 Hut (260)
1.11 NG 2367 6490 Broch (302)
1.12 NG 2345 6251 Shieling-hut (625)
1.13 NG 2387 6453 Shieling-hut; Shieling-mound (626-627)
1.14 NG 234 646 Cultivation Remains

(NG 2368 6490) Dun Gearymore (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Dun Gearymore, a broch situated on top of a hillock is circular, measuring 35'3" in diameter within an 11' thick all. The outer face is traceable for the greater part of the circumference, but is reduced to only one or two courses, except towards the NW where it stands to a height of 3'. The entrance cannot be detected. There are traces of galleries and two conjoined cells.
There are numerous ruined houses and stone dykes in the vicinity.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 1915; A Graham 1948.

Dun Gearymore, a broch, as described and planned. An outwork around the broch consists of a stone wall which has been almost destroyed in the NE by later buildings. Elsewhere the outer face can be traced intermittently and although no inner face is evident, the extent of wall core visible suggests a thickness of c. 2.6m.
To the N of the broch are four denuded circular stone-walled huts (A-D), each showing an intermittent inner face of stones on edge, but with no definite outer face evident although the spread of debris suggests a wall thickness in each case of about 1.5m. No entrances are evident. 'A' is 6.5m in internal diameter; 'B' is 8.0m, and'C' is 6.5m. The N arc of hut 'C' overlies the outwork. 'D' is mutilated and obscured by deep heather but appears to measure c. 6.0m internal diameter.
Visited by OS (A S P) 11 May 1961 and (I S S) 18 October 1971.

The area around the broch of Dun Gearymore (NG26SW 1.11) is covered with the remains of a variety of structures. These include the immediate surroundings of the broch, where there are at least three hut-circles, traces of an enclosing rampart, several shielings and a farmstead and extending from it a series of enclosures and cultivation remains and a scatter of shieling-huts, buildings, farmstead and a hut-circle.
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 1 November 1990.