Monument record MHG4886 - Dun Sleadale, Talisker, Skye

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

Dun Sleadale, Talisker, NG32NW0001

Dun Sleadale is one of the best-preserved examples on Skye, perhaps because it is located away from the main concentrations of modern settlement, in a remote glen on the west side of the island. The site did remain in occupation however. There are two shieling huts of much later date in the interior and around the rock outcrop on which the broch sits are more huts. (66)

The walls still stand to 2m high over much of their length. One lintel is still in place over the entrance passage, which widens and then narrows again as you pass through it. Intra-mural galleries, giving access to upper floors, are visible extending around most of the wall length. (62)

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

RCAHMS. 1928. The Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. Edinburgh: HMSO, 140-1, No. 477.

Inforamtion from SCRAN Project, March, 2000

Dun Sleadale, Talisker, is a broch which though in ruinous condition, is rather better preserved in parts than the great majority of Skye examples. The outer face of the wall stands 8ft high on the SE and 5ft on the E and NW, on the SW only the foundation course remains. In the interior there is a great mass of fallen stones hiding much of the structure. The internal diameter varies from 39ft NW-SE to 37ft 6ins from NE-SW. The wall at its present summit generally is about 9ft thick, but at the entrance, which is placed towards the ENE, it is 10ft 3ins thick, this measurement being nearer the foundation. At the outside the entrance passage is 2ft 10ins wide, and about 3ft in there are checks on either side. In the wall, some 3ft 6ins to the right of the entrance the end of a narrow gallery is seen, while on the opposite side, at a distance of 5ft is part of another gallery half full of stones. Nearly opposite the entrance is the doorway, leading into a gallery extending to the right and on the NW about 5ft of the lintels of the lower gallery maintain their position. Above them one course of the outer wall of an upper gallery is seen. The wall here is slightly displaced, but the upper gallery seems to be about 2ft wide.
The outer face of the wall of the broch shows a distinct inward batter. Included in list of Brochs (A Graham 1949).
RCAHMS 1928; A Graham 1949.

Dun Sleadale, as described by RCAHMS. Within the interior are two single-cell shieling huts and around the base of the rock outcrop are the ruins of others, mainly double-cell examples.
Visited by OS (C F W) 7 June 1961.