Print

MHG5130 - Broch - Dun A'Cheitechin, Skye

Summary

No summary available.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

NG44NW 8 4175 4785.

(NG 4175 4785) On the SW side of Skeabost Bridge, a rocky knoll named Dun a Cheitechin carries the remains of a broch and its outworks. The site is now wholly turf-covered but it is possible to pick out, on the highest point of the knoll, a roughly circular building c. 20.0m in external diameter, with walls c. 4.0m thick, almost certainly a broch.
A less substantial wall forms an outwork enclosing the summit. No entrance to the broch is visible, but a gap in the NE corner of the outer defence seems to be original since it coincides with the approach route from the N (up a ridge and through a natural cleft in the rocks.) On the pasture below the knoll, to the E, are about 4 ruined houses.
Dun a Cheitechin as misapplied on the 1904 6" to the rocky knoll immediately SSE. The correct name for this latter hill (NG 418 475) is Dun na h'Uamha or Cave Hill. The name Caroline Hill applies to the lower slopes of Dun a' Cheitechin. (Visible on RAF air photographs CPE/Scot/UK/175: 1197-8)
Visited by OS (C F W) 24 June 1961; Information from Mr Gilles, Tote, Skeabost.

(NG 4175 4785) Dun a Cheitechin (NR)
OS 6"map, (1966)

Probably a broch but its classification rests solely on the size of and shape of the surviving mound rather than on architectural detail of which only three or four outer facing stones on the W arc can be seen. The turf-covered mound, maximum height 2.0m, has been extensively quarried and there are no traces of wall faces to ascertain the wall thickness as described and planned by previous OS field surveyor whose plan, is, to say the least, ambitious.
The outer face of the outwork can be seen intermittently in the W arc, and one inner facing stone in this arc suggests a wall thickness of 2.6m.
The entrance near the NW corner is 1.7m wide and is flanked on each side by two earthfast stones. The wall in the E and S has been robbed and its course is scarcely distinguishable but several stones protruding from the turf suggest it followed the rim of the eminenece.
Visited by OS (I S S) 12 October 1971.

NG44 2 DUN a' CHEITECHIN
NG/4175 4785
Possible broch in Snizort, Skye, consisting of a much-quarried, turf-covered mound standing on a round-topped, rocky knoll; no structural features can be seen except a few facing stones of the outer wallface [1]. Faint traces of an outer wall, or turf-covered bank [3, plan], can be seen enclosing the summit, and there are signs of an entrance through this in the north-west corner [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NG 44 NW 8: 2. MacSween 1984-85, 45, no. 29 and fig. 29: 3. Swanson (ms) 1985, 831-32 and plan. <1>

This site was included in the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland online database. See link below for site entry. <2>

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NG 4175 4784 (70m by 70m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NG44NW
Geographical Area	SKYE AND LOCHALSH
Civil Parish	SNIZORT

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Investigations/Events (0)

External Links (2)