Monument record MHG5074 - Dun Na H'Airde

NG35NE 3 3507 5577.

(NG 3507 5577) Dun Na h'Airde (NR) (Site of)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Dun na h-Airde, Greshornish Point - listed as a Dun. On the western shore of Loch Greshornish some 650 yards SE of Greshornish Point, is an irregularly shaped elevated plateau almost surrounded by the sea and connected on the west by a narrow neck to the land. It has rocky sides, mostly precipitous, which on the N rise about 50' straight out of the water, but which towards the S fall to a height of about 20'. The summit has a pronounced slope from NNE to SSW to a lower terrace, all of which is occupied by the remains of a fort which has been defended by a strong wall on the landward or western flank, and by a weaker one on the side next to the water, both of which are built on or near the edge of the rocks. The latter is reduced to the foundations, but the wall on the W shows a height of 3' of its outer face in position in several places. For the greater part of its length it is only a mass of stones 4' in height. The dun is divided by a wall 7 1/2' thick, broken by a connecting passage running into two enclosures, the first 100' x 78', the second 68' x 46'. It is approached from the ridge connecting it with the land, and a roadway, enters the northern court through an entrance which is 12' higher than the crest of the ridge.
In the northern court is a circular well, the wall of which stands exposed for some 2' above the rubbish which has accumulated in it. It measures from 3' to 3' 6" in diameter and seems to have been surrounded by a parapet but this is almost gone.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 1921.

Dun na h'Airde, a fort, as planned by RCAHMS, occupying a rock girt plateau whose E and N sides plunge precipitously to the sea.
The fort wall conforms to the rim of the plateau and varies in thickness from 1.1m in the E to 3.3m at the entrance in the W where the outer face, with a pronounced batter, survives to a maximum height of 1.4m. The entrance is unusual in that the S side is rebated twice whilst the N side is straight. It is paved and is equipped with two steps or threshold stones. Immediately outside the entrance on the N are indications of what may be a flight of steps leading to the wallhead. The interior is divided into two unequal parts, at different levels, by a contemporary wall which is built along a natural scarp. This wall is pierced towards its W end by a communicating passageway. It appears that the wall at "A" has been rebuilt as it is only 0.8m thick t this point, and there are traces of the original wall at the cliff edge.
Within the upper northerly part is an oval stone-lined well with traces of the possible parapet noted by RCAHMS, and an isolated stretch of turf-covered walling, of uncertain purpose, spread to c.2.0m and showing a few facing stones on its N side.
The 'roadway' described by RCAHMS approaching the fort obliquely from the NW does not appear to be a constructed way and is probably due to tumble being cleared for access to cultivarte the interior which shows evidence of lazybeds in both compartments.
Visited by OS (RL) 6 October 1971.

This fort is situated on a precipitous promontory at the N end of the Greshornish peninsula. Its wall is in a comparatively good state of preservation, the coursed masonry of the entrance-passage and parts of the outer face still standing up to 1m in height. At the entrance, which is on the NW, there is evidence for two phases of construction. A wall, which divides the interior into two courts has been butted against the main wall. The entrance itself has been reduced in width from 1.7m to 1m by the insertion of a block of masonry, together with an inner sill-stone and presumably the paving-stones visible on the floor. To the NE of the entrance, the main wall has also been thickened from 2.7m to 3.3m by the addition of second skin of inner facing-stones. In its first phase the interior of the fort measured about 45m by 23m; within the upper court, which measures 26m by 23m, there is a stone-lined well and a low stony bank. The only other features visible within the interior are lazy-beds.
Immediately outside the entrance to the fort there are traces of a small sub-rectangular hut.
(WAT90 1479)
Visited by RCAHMS (SH) 21 August 1990.