Dun Aisgain

Dun Aisgain

This very well-preserved, galleried dun is sited on the summit of a low, rocky outcrop 600 m SSW of Burg Farmhouse, Loch Tuath.  It is circular in plan, the internal court measuring 10.4 m in diameter.  Almost the full circuit of both the inner and outer faces of the wall can be traced.  It averages 2.3 m in thickness, but increases to 2.75 m on each side of the west-facing entrance.  It is well preserved, particularly on the north-west side where the outer face reaches a height of 2.25 m, rising vertically from the ground for 1.5 m and sloping inwards above this point.  Here the inner face stands 1.75 m high.  A 0.3 m wide, internal gallery can be seen in the thickness of the wall in several places.  The entrance narrows from 1.1 m at its inner end to only 0.8 m at its outer end, but about half way along the passage it broadens to as much as 1.35 m where it is checked for a wooden door.

The summit around the outside of the dun has been surrounded by a stone-walled outwork.  This is best preserved on the south east where it stands to 1.9 m, but, for the most part, it is little more than a low, grass-covered band of stony debris.  The location of its entrance is unclear, but may be to the west opposite the entrance to the dun.  To the WSW a relatively recent sub-rectangular enclosure has encroached on the inner line of the outwork wall, and a recent boundary dyke crosses it on the west.

                         Grid Reference NM 377 452