Geary

Nearest town:
Uig (13km ENE)
OS reference:
NG26786192
OS sheet:
23
Latitude:
57° 33' 52.9 N
Longitude:
6° 34' 10.24 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Geary (Promontory Fort) by LesHamilton

The southern cliffs of the promontory atop which stand the scant remains of Geary Fort.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 29, 2018
Image of Geary (Promontory Fort) by LesHamilton

From the fort’s interior, this heavily vegetated rampart is surely part of its original protective wall.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 29, 2018
Image of Geary (Promontory Fort) by LesHamilton

The site of Geary Promontory Fort is thickly clothed with rank vegetation and thickets of shrubbery. Very little stonework is visible, save these two large boulders which may have belonged to its original defences.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 29, 2018
Image of Geary (Promontory Fort) by LesHamilton

The wall that protected the fort is all but gone now. Perhaps these deeply embedded, moss covered stones are a relic of it.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 29, 2018
Image of Geary (Promontory Fort) by LesHamilton

Overlooking steep cliffs, this is the view north from Geary Promontory Fort.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 29, 2018

Articles

Geary

LesHamilton
LesHamilton May 29, 2018

Visited: May 2, 2018

Skye’s Waternish peninsula is best known for its three brochs: Dun Hallin, Dun Gearymore and Dun Borrafiach. But near the community of Geary on its eastern coast, unmarked on the OS map, lie the scant remains of Geary Promontory Fort.

Canmore’s notes from 1990 state:
This fort is situated on a small promontory on the precipitous cliffs towards the N end of the Geary crofts; it is defined by an arc of walling 4m thick and 0.75m in height that cuts across the promontory and line of the cliffs to the E, N and S providing protection on these flanks. At the S end the wall does not run up to the cliff edge, and although the N end is now wasted it can be traced up to the edge of the cliff.

At the time of my visit it was hard to believe that any defensive wall existed. But the location of the site was absolutely confirmed by GPS: I was definitely on the correct promontory.

The promontory is totally overgrown, in part by semi-mature thickets of shrubbery and elsewhere by rank grass and vegetation. I could find no coherent evidence of any protective wall: just a couple of large boulders, an earthfast moss-covered stone, and what appeared to be a thickly vegetated rampart which stretched across around a third of the neck of the promontory.

The only redeeming feature of this site is the views it gives across Loch Snizort to the Ascrib Islands, and northwards along the rugged Waternish coastline.

If visiting by car, parking places are non existent. However a helpful local told me to ‘just park in a lay-by’. As there is no through traffic in Geary, the temporary loss of one lay-by for parking is of no great consequence as everyone living there has parking on their properties.

Sites within 20km of Geary

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