Monument record MHG6662 - Dun Mor

NG33NW 4 3399 3905.

(NG 3399 3905) Dun Mor (NR) (Site of)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Overlooking and some 500 yards N of Dun Beag (NG33NW 3) at an elevation of over 300' above sea-level, is a plateau rising about 50' above the surrounding moorland, with precipitous rocky sides for the greater part of its circumference, except on the NE, where it is approached by a slight ridge rising in a steep gradient. The summit of the hill is occupied by the ruins of Dun Mor, which is quadrilateral in shape, measuring internally about 175' from NW-SE, and 140' NE-SW. The walling, though almost obliterated varies from 8' to 14' in thickness and rises from 4-5' above the interior. The main entrance is an opening 6'4" in width and 13' in length near the northern end, and on the SE a pathway leads up the slope to what may have been a second but smaller entrance. A butting on the inside of the wall in the eastern angle is a large hut circle, hollow and damp in the interior, measuring some 30-37' in diameter, inside walls 6' thick. At a distance of some 35-40' from the north-eastern wall, there has been an outer wall of stone, which, though much destroyed, shows parts in position, and towards the southern end, which returns towards the main wall, it is 5-8' thick.
Inside this return, between the outer and inner walls, are two hut circles lying 3' apart, one circular, measuring 7' in diameter and the other oval, with axes 19' and 13' internally, with a wall about 3'9" thick rising 6" above the turf and impinging on the outer defence.
In the neighbourhood of the dun are numerous ruined buildings, enclosures and boundary walls apparently of much later date than the original structure.
RCAHMS 1928.

Dun Mor, as described by RCAHMS. Its dimensions suggest that it would be more properly described as a fort. Condition is ruinous.
Visited by OS (A S P) 30 May 1961.

Dun Mor, a fort, generally as described and planned by the RCAHMS. About 33.0m SSE of the entrance, extending at right angles for c. 2.0m into the wall from the outer wall face is another wall face about 1.0m high. This is of uncertain purpose, but may be a stabilising wall.
The hut circle in the interior is in a sheltered hollow in the E corner of the fort, a wet situation collection surface drainage, but there is little doubt that it is a hut. It is evident as a circular hollow, overgrown with rushes, bounded by the denuded remains of a stone wall of which the inner face is visible inter- mittently, indicating an internal diameter of 10.0m. The outer wall face is visible in the S, indicating a wall thickness here of 1.8m. The entrance is not evident. The alleged hut circles within the outer defence on the E are uncertainly structural remains and are certainly not huts. They are too indefinite and confused by debris from the fort for either their shape or accurate size to be determined.
Visited by OS (R L) 14 October 1971.

A short stretch of the outer face of the outwork can be seen at its N corner, and the ill-preserved entrance, c. 1.7m wide, survives towards its S end.
Visited by OS (A A) 5 November 1971.