Monument record MHG5824 - Dun Suledale

NG35SE 2 3744 5255.
Dun Suledale (NR) OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Dun Suledale, NG35SE0002A

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 occur frequently in north and west of Scotland. (41)

Dun Suledale epitomises this idea of a high status settlement, perched as it is in a conspicuous position in the middle of a rocky plateau, overlooking Loch Snizort Beag. The rock on which it stands is enclosed by a stone wall, through which an entrance can still be seen. (49)

The broch is well preserved, perhaps because it lies some distance above the limit of recent settlement. It is circular in plan, with the drystone walls still standing to 2.5m in height. The entrance passage is flanked by guard cells, one with most of its lintelled roof intact. Another two cells and a passageway can be traced in the thickness of the wall. (63)

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

RCAHMS. 1928. The Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Small Isles. Edinburgh: HMSO, 194-6, No. 618.

Information from SCRAN Project. March, 2000
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Dun Suledale, the best preserved broch in Skye, is built on an elevated site, near the centre of a plateau, bordered by rocks rising 20' - 25' in height, except towards the N, where the ground falls away in a fairly steep slope. The wall of the broch reaches a general height of 9', much of it being obscured by fallen stones. Circular on plan, it measures 42'4" in diameter at the present wall head, within a wall which varies from 10' - 12 1/2' in thickness. The entrance is from the W. On the right side of the entrance passage, a well-buiilt low doorway leads into a well-built oval beehive cell in the interior of the wall. Though the roof of the cell is broken, it still measures 9' in height. In the E arc of the wall there is another oval cell partially cleared but with the entrance covered. On the SSW, the eastern curved end of an oval cell or gallery is visible. Within the E portion of the wall what seems to be the stair is partially cleared. The entrance is at the N end. On the top of the wall as it stands at present, immediately N of the entrance passage and at a higher level than the lintels, is the curved N end of an oval cell or long gallery.
Amongst the rubbish within the broch, a short length of the straight face of a wall is seen in the N section and part of a curved wall in the SW, are probably remains of secondary buildings.
An outer defensive stone wall has crowned the edge of the plateau, its entrance being on the NW.
RCAHMS 1928, visited 1921.

As described above; well preserved.
Visited by OS (A S P) 1 June 1961.

(NG 2744 5255) Dun Suladale (NAT) Broch (NR)
OS 6"map, (1969)

A bronze spiral ring from here is in the British Museum. (Acc No: 1948, 5-4.1)
D V Clarke 1971.

AOC Archaeology were commissoned by the Forestry Commission Scotland to survey the broch in 2015. Although not on the National Forest Estate, it was selected in order to advance the methodology of survey and visualisation and to provide high resolution images. Work included topographic survey and high resolution photography and laser scanning of the whole structure to allow for the production of 3D imagery. <1>