EHG4870 - Excavation - Dun Ardtreck

Dun Ardtreck stands on the west coast of Skye, on a rock knoll with a sheer cliff. It is a small D-shaped drystone strong-hold surrounded by an outer wall and could be one of a small group which had the high broch hollow wall but were not circular towers, termed semibrochs by the writer. The circumstantial evidence for the wall having originally been high is strong, although it is badly ruined now; however, the possibility that the wall was never more than of modest height cannot be completely ruled out. Construction was probably in the first or second centuries BC and was followed by two distinct phases of occupation. Some of the finds of Roman material are unusual for an Atlantic site and there may be special reasons for their presence. The work on Dun Ardtreck was undertaken as part of the second stage of a programe of research into the origin and development of the broch-building cultures of the Scottish Iron Age, the first of which was the excavation of the broch of Dun Mor Vaul in Tiree from 1962-64. <1>