Reverse view of the exquisite landscape context looking from Meall na Suiramach. The dun sits left foreground of Loch Leum na Luirginn, diagonally above the modern cemetery. The wondrous Cleat stands aloof beyond its own loch.
Loch Leum Na Luirginn and its fragmentary dun from Cleat, perhaps the most exciting mini-mountain I’ve ever had the pleasure to ascend.
Loch Leum Na Luirginn dun now exists as little more that a well-robbed grassy platform in the heather.
The Dun lies amidst stunning scenery. This is the view over the dun to its the south, featuring its eponymous loch and the pyramidal Trotternish hill Cleat in the background.
The circular foundation course of the Dun is plain to see in this view from the east.
Evidence of three internal foundation walling courses peek out from the overgrowth.
The dun, viewed from the west.
Visited: April 29, 2018
Surely few megalithic monuments in Britain can be found in such stunning surroundings as this diminuative dun, just 200 metres north of Loch Leum na Luirginn in Skye’s Trotternish peninsula. Nestling just east of the spectacular Trotternish mountains there are views to the pyramidal Cleat in the south while northward rise the precipitous cliffs and pinnacles of the Cuiraing.
The dun itself lies 150 metres south of the Brogaig to Uig road, behind the modern cemetery, itself about two kilometres from Brogaig (not the old cemetery adjacent to the community). From the cemetery gate, follow the fence line south outside the cemetery as far as the unnamed stream that flows east into the River Brogaig. Step across the stream where the slope rises steeply for some 20 metres (too steeply to consider an ascent), and follow a path that follows the stream to the right (west) towards easier heather clad slopes where an ascent can be made.
All of a sudden you emerge on a plateau with the loch and Cleat prominent, and the site of the dun is obvious as a low, grassy platform amongst the heather. The dun stands at an altitude of 149 metres and has clearly been severely robbed. Nonetheless, though heavily vegetated, its outline is clear, with a pronounced saucer-shaped depression within. Inside the dun sufficient stonework can be seen to surmise that two or three courses of foundation blocks probably lurk beneath the tussocks of grass.
