Description

The overgrown remains of Dun Ban stand on a small islet, linked to the southern shore of Loch Hornary by a causeway. The causeway itself, and almost all of the island outside the walls of the dun, are normally submerged, but may have stood slightly higher in the Iron Age. The dun is a small, sub-circular drystone fortification 15m in average external diameter.

The entrance was on the SW. Early Victorian excavations revealed a guard cell to the left of the entrance passage, and suggested a wall thickness of 3m to 4m, with various corbelled cells built into the wall and within the inner courtyard.

Almost certainly these were later modifications to an original plan of a typical lightly built island dun, and undisturbed Iron Age levels will survive below these later structures. The area to be scheduled is bounded by the shoreline of the island, and is 25m in diameter, as shown in red on the attached map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance for the evidence it can provide, through excavation, for defensive settlement in the Western Isles from the Iron Age until the end of the Medieval period. This importance is enhanced by the monument's membership of a group of such sites, allowing comparative study, and by the waterlogged site conditions which should have helped preserve organic archaeological deposits.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NF 85 NE 7.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland