Dun Gallain painted from near Tobar Fuar.
Image credit: Found in Colomsay Museum
Images
The approach from the south east.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Beneath the west wall, a tad chancy, the houses of Kilchattan north of the headland.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Standing on remnants of the north wall looking north west.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
The inside of fort plus a walkers cairn.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Standing on top of the western wall, looking west.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Defence on the north looks pretty good.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
These must have been huge walls as it swings round to the west.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Outer defence on the south. Bits of excellent stonework still remain.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Fallen stone, built stone, on the south west.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
On the south side, a tad windy and the remains of stonework.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Up to this point calm, the full blast of an Atlantic wind is about to hit.
Image credit: drew/AMJ
Articles
From Tobar Fuar Dun Gallain is easily spotted to the south west, from where we were staying in Killchattan, we could see the dun and just to make sure we realised what it looked like there was also a painting of the site on the kitchen wall. All of this proved that Dun Gallain is in a fantastic location with superb all round views.
The wind was picking up up as I walked across the golf course, underfoot conditions would change as walked on to a rougher surface but they remained dry. It was quite a hike as the wind grew stronger and as I reached the top, approaching from the south east, I did well to remain on my feet.
The dun measures 30 by 20m, with best walls on the south and east. Climbing beneath these walls is quite risky but gives a good indication of the surviving stonework. No such work needed for the north and west as sheer cliffs do the needful. On top of the west cliff sits a walker’s cairn probably made from stones taken from the dun’s walls.
Weather plays a big part in Hebridean life and it would play a huge part later on. Far out at sea I could see flashes of lightning which told me it was time to get a move on back to safety of the car.
A superb site.
Visited 12/08/2024.
“Grey Somerled came to Colonsay, they say, in the capacity of factor. But he neglected his duties, imposed penalties and hardships on the innocent and defenceless tenants, and generally made himself so disagreeable that at last it was decided to take revenge upon him, previous warnings having been no deterrent.
“Like Rory Mor of Dunvegan, who slept best when he was within hearing of his ‘nurse’, the waterfall, Grey Somerled was wont to be lulled to sleep by the grinding noise of a quern placed near his head. When he retired for the night, one of the servants had to turn the quern-stone by his pillow, and keep on turning it, lest he woke.
“It was recognised that any attempt to surprise Grey Somerled during daylight was foredoomed to failure. So, a plot was laid to circumvent him during the night-time. His enemies entered into a conspiracy with one of the servants that she should allow them to invade Dun Gallain after he had fallen asleep. When they arrived, one of their number relieved the woman at the quern, and proceeded to turn the stone without intermission. But he was not too skillful at the turning; and his harsh and irregular grinding soon woke the sleeper. Ere Gey Somerled had had time to consider the matter of resistance, his foes were upon him. They carried him away from Dun Gallain; and tradition in the islands of Argyll has it that, in great privation, he spent the remainder of his days in a bee-hive house of stone, situated on the farmlands of Machrins.
“One night – so the story concludes – a huge boulder from the roof of the bee-hive fell in, killing its unhappy inmate. So as to identify the spot where this tragedy happened, the islanders raised on it the cairn now indicated on the Ordnance Survey Map as Carn Shomhairle Liath – that is to say, Grey Somerled’s Cairn.”
A.A. MacGregor (1947)
Dun Gallain is also called Fort of the Strangers. An old folk tale told locally holds that in the Viking period the fort was the residence of a local chief named Grey Somerled, related to the Lords of the Isles.
This Grey Somerled was betrayed to his enemies, who seized him and imprisoned him in a stone hut at Machrins, a mile or so away. One day a stone fell from the roof of the hut, killing the chief.
David Ross
Sites within 20km of Dun Gallain
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Tobar Fuar
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Ardskenish
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Dun Meadhonach
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Garvard Standing Stone
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Fingal’s Limpet Hammers
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Lower Kilchattan
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Dunan Nan Con
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Dun Cholla
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Dun Eibhinn
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Scalasaig Standing Stone
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Scalasaig Farm
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Buaile Riabhach
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Scalasaig
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Dun Uragaig
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Dun Tealtaig
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Uamh Ur
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Uamh na Bantighearna, Kiloran Bay
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Uamh Na Mine
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Cnoc Beag, Beinn Bheag
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Dunan Nan Nighean
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Clach Na Gruagach
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Dun a Gheard
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