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Dun Deardail

Stone Fort / Dun

<b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetieImage © Andy Sweet
Also known as:
  • Dundbhairdghall
  • Dun Dearg Suil
  • Dun Dear Duil
  • Deardinl
  • Glen Nevis
  • Dun Dearduil

Nearest Town:Fort William (3km NW)
OS Ref (GB):   NN127701 / Sheet: 41
Latitude:56° 47' 4.92" N
Longitude:   5° 3' 59.18" W

Added by wideford


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News

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Ancient hillfort Dun Deardail recreated in Lego

A 2,500-year-old Scottish hillfort has been recreated in Lego.

More info :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-45420493
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
8th September 2018ce

Ash from destructive hill fort fire 'preserved in peat'


Archaeologists believe they have found, preserved in peat, charcoal from a fire that destroyed an ancient hillfort.

Dun Deardail was built about 2,500 years ago on a prominent knoll on Sgorr Chalum, a hill overlooking the River Nevis in Glen Nevis.

Charcoal found in surrounding peatbog has been analysed... continues...
moss Posted by moss
30th April 2018ce

New Aerial Images Of The Fort

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37366363
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
16th September 2016ce

Images (click to view fullsize)

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<b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by Lianachan <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by BigSweetie <b>Dun Deardail</b>Posted by Andrew Hilton

Fieldnotes

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On the road out of Fort William that goes to the two Stiell Falls you have Ben Nevis on your left and Nevis Forest on your right. Go along this road as far as the peat track that is part of the Cow Hill Circuit in the forest. At the top where it meets the West Highland Way several directions are signposted including that for 2.8km (ha, ha) to this vitrified fort. A long steady walk along the forest road.

Eventually you reach the point where the signpost points to the Dun Deardail track off the West Highland Way. You go over the most incredible turnstile, of such a size you could literally take a pram over it - except the track is strictly for the feet. It is basically a gravel path consolidated by black bags of something spongy underneath, so that you have the strange (and at times disconcerting) feeling of walking on a deep forest floor.

Just before the fort is a big hill called An Dun despite being nothing of the sort, purely natural. At one marshy spot there is a duckboard walk. I cannot recommend this site to anyone that is not either very sure of foot or else foolhardy - you imagine beforehand someone will have made a level route straight into the interior of Dun Deardail but instead find yourself clambering up the steep sides on a not-quite-straight stony path. The narrow path is composed of different materials, the right hand section (below the level of the left by several inches) is all fragmented planes of presumably bedrock whilst the left is small boulders and rocks, the right all grey but the left of differing hues not all owing to vitrification. I think in far drier weather climbing over the turf would have been my choice instead. Once you do reach the top its mostly depression, with a narrow outer circuit at the edge of the sharp drop about the site.

There are what appear to be reasonably sized structures around the edges of the interior but my view was rather damp and this really is the wrong season for a major recce unless you can get around nettles and such.

Dun Deardail is one in a line of vitrified forts that stretches from Craig Phadraig outside Inverness all the way down to the West Coast. Most of its names refer to a fancied connection with Princess Deirdre (see miscellaneous) but it is also known as Dun Dearg Suil 'Hill of the Red Eye'. This has been read as a reference to usage as a beacon hill when surely one could as well read in a folk-memory of its vitrification or an astute inference by analogy that this had happened.
wideford Posted by wideford
4th July 2004ce
Edited 6th July 2007ce

The crag of Dun Deardail is 700' high and the fort is 925' above sea level. So it might be easier, though taking longer, to follow the Way through Nevis Forest ! The Way has the nearest turn-off down to the main road at Dun Dige. wideford Posted by wideford
22nd June 2004ce
Edited 22nd June 2004ce

Folklore

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Supposedly named after Deirdre, the princess of Ulster who eloped with Naoise to Loch Ness (named after Naoise naturally). wideford Posted by wideford
22nd June 2004ce

Miscellaneous

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"Fort of the Red Eye". This ruinous vitrified fort (RCAHMS NMRS record no.NN17SW 6) would seem to hold a similar position relative to Fort William as Dun Phadraig (also vitrified) does to Inverness. An enclosure wall runs about a natural knoll on the E & W & N, and a 4m D depression in the northern area of this is a well/cistern beside a marshy area. wideford Posted by wideford
15th June 2004ce
Edited 22nd June 2004ce