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Dun Guaidhre, fort

A Scheduled Monument in Oban South and the Isles, Argyll and Bute

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Coordinates

Latitude: 56.6083 / 56°36'29"N

Longitude: -6.2386 / 6°14'19"W

OS Eastings: 139997

OS Northings: 754302

OS Grid: NM399543

Mapcode National: GBR BCZ7.WS0

Mapcode Global: WGYBZ.45HC

Entry Name: Dun Guaidhre, fort

Scheduled Date: 4 February 2003

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Source ID: SM10553

Schedule Class: Cultural

Category: Prehistoric domestic and defensive: fort (includes hill and promontory fort)

Location: Kilninian and Kilmore

County: Argyll and Bute

Electoral Ward: Oban South and the Isles

Traditional County: Argyllshire

Description

The monument comprises a fort of prehistoric date, visible as upstanding earthworks.

The monument lies on a rocky ridge 420m NNW of Croig farmhouse. Except at its S end, the ridge rises abruptly over cliffs or steep rocky slopes, which maintain an average height of 6m along the E and W sides, and reach a maximum of 10m at the N end; from the S, however, the approach is easy. The remains of what has been a massive wall extend across the S end of the ridge and continue some distance along the W side, but there is no evidence to suggest that it ever continued beyond its present limits.

The fort is thus, in effect, a promontory fort. The maximum dimensions of the generally level area cut off by the wall (the fort interior) are 67m by 30m. A number of stones belonging to the inner and outer faces of the wall are visible, indicating that it had a thickness of up to about 3.7m, and the rubble core is standing in places to a height of 0.6m. The entrance, 2m wide, is on the SSE. Within the interior there are the foundations of what appears to have been a stone-and-turf enclosure of no great age.

Forts of this type are characteristic of the Iron Age (about 500 BC to AD 500).

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material is likely to survive. It is irregular in shape, with maximum measurements of 80m N-S by 50m E-W, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to contribute to an understanding of prehistoric defended settlement and economy.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NM 35 SE 7.

Bibliography:

RCAHMS (1980) The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Argyll: an inventory of the monuments volume 3: Mull, Tiree, Coll and Northern Argyll (excluding the early medieval and later monuments of Iona), Edinburgh, 78-9, No. 138.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

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