Dun Torcuill

Dun Torcuill is a broch on Loch An Duin (lake) on the Hebridean island of North Uist in Scotland .

Dun Torcuill is located on a former island, about 30 m south-east of a promontory, on the west side of Loch an Duin, north-west of Lochmaddy . The island is connected to the shore by a 1.9 m wide dam. It extends from the end of the promontory in a slight curve to the southeast. Although dilapidated, Dun Torcuill is the best example of a brochure on North Uist.

The broch is made of dry stone and occupies the southeastern part of the island. The walls are inclined slightly inward and reach a height of about 2.7 m in the northwest and up to 3.0 m in the south. They vary in thickness from 2.25 m in the north and southwest, to 3.0 m in the east and 3.75 m in the west and northwest, where fallen debris covers an access that is 1.15 m wide at the inner end Has. The inside of the broch, which has a diameter of about 11.4 m, is filled with stone material up to a height of 1.2 m, which covers all entrances to the intramural structures. In the northern arch, access to an approximately 4.5 m long section of a ground-level gallery is through a hole in the ceiling. The gallery is about in the middle of the wall and is about 0.75 m at the bottom and 0.6 m at the top. Its ceiling forms the floor of an upper gallery, of which a short section up to a height of about 1.2 m has been preserved. In the southeast segment of the wall there was a 0.8 m wide staircase. In the southwest section was an oval chamber that was about 5.4 m long, 1.2 m wide and 1.45 m high.

Immediately next to the Broch, in the northwestern part of the island, there are three annexes of irregular shape that appear to be of later date. The structures suggest that the Broch had already been abandoned when it was built. The outbuildings, clearly built from recycled stone, have 1.35m thick walls, but the character of the masonry differs from that of the Broch construction. The fact that the extensions had nothing to do with the main structure is shown by the fact that a branch begins at the Broch entrance that opens up.

literature

• I. Armit: Towers in the North: the Brochs of Scotland. London 2003.

Web links

• Entry on Dun Torcuill  in Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland database

Coordinates: 57 ° 38 '44.4 "  N , 7 ° 12' 59.7"  W.