Images

Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by LesHamilton

The ruins of Dun Sleadale, viewed from above, with the splendid Preshal Mòr in the background.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by LesHamilton

External walling courses can be seen round most of the circumference of this broch. In this view, the entrance passage is prominent.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

The entrance passage accesses a curious approx circular cell within the enclosure... apparently a shieling.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

The best section of surviving stone work... looking toward Preshal More.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

An intra-mural chamber of some description...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

Looking north. Talisker lies unseen beyond and below...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

Not altogether successfully into the sun toward Preshal Beg... I think.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

The entrance. I assume that’s an original fallen passage lintel?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

Looking approx north-east... Preshal More is the wondrous mini mountain.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dun Sleadale (Talisker) (Broch) by GLADMAN

A threatening sky above Dun Sleadale...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

Dun Sleadale (Talisker)

Visited: September 3, 2013

It’s perhaps not surprising that this is the first fieldnote concerning Dùn Sleadale to appear on TMA. You cannot see this broch from any road. It cannot be accessed by a gentle walk. It is located on a plateau flanked by steep hillsides at an elevation of 136 metres, and the ascent starts from sea-level.

Moreover, there is no clear path to the broch. The starting point for a visit to Dùn Sleadale is the small car park used by walkers heading for Talisker Bay. But about 200 metres into this walk, immediately after the path crosses the Sleadale Burn, a rusted gate provides access to the field on the left.

From here the route is an ascending traverse, firstly through grass tussocks and bracken, then on shorter sheep-grazed grass on the higher slopes. Continue for about half a kilometre until you encounter a stream flowing downhill to join the the Sleadale Burn, and follow this to the plateau.

Still, Dùn Sleadale is hidden from view but, carrying on in the same direction for another 200 or so metres, to the right of a prominent outcrop that rises ahead, the broch suddenly springs into view.

This broch is well worth the effort of visiting, as it retains several courses of walling round almost its entire external circumference, with an entranceway on the east. Almost no internal structure remains alas, as the interior—including the entrance—is buried beneath a wasteland of collapsed masonry. A lichen-encrusted ash tree struggles to survive within its shelter. Only on the southern face of the broch is there slight evidence of a gallery, which is for most of its length buried under tonnes of rubble.

You can learn more about this broch at Canmore.

Sites within 20km of Dun Sleadale (Talisker)