Kilpatrick Dun
| Kilpatrick Dun | |
|
Buteshire | |
|---|---|
 Kilpatrick Dun | |
| Type: | Hill fort |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NR90652619 |
| Location: | 55°29’5"N, 5°18’53"W |
| History | |
| Built Iron Age | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Historic Scotland |
Kilpatrick Dun is an Iron Age hill fort or 'dun' on the Isle of Arran in Buteshire. It is to be found about a mile south of the village of Blackwaterfoot.
Description
Kilpatrick Dun is situated on level ground on a north-westerly hill-slope.[1] It can be reached by a short walk from a small car park.[2]
The site is not well understood. In the past it has been proposed that it was a Bronze Age burial cairn or the site of an early Christian monastery.[2] However, it is now generally thought that the site was a fortified residence, or dun, of a type common across the western Caledonia in the later Iron Age.[2] A similar structure can be seen at the Torr a'Chaisteal dun two and a half miles to the south.[2]
The dun is circular, 19 yards in diameter, within a wall more than 25 feet thick in places.[2] The entrance, four feet wide, is from the south.[2] There are four chambers visible in the wall thickness.[2]
The dun is surrounded by a large enclosure.[1] The enclosure is similar to the cashel of an early Christian monastery, but the small rectangular structures built against the enclosure bank, on the far side from the dun, make more sense as a post-mediæval croft or bothy.[2]
Outside links
- Kilpatrick: dun, enclosure, hut circles, cairn and field system - scheduled monument detail (Historic Environment Scotland)