Dun Dornadilla

Also known as:
Dun Dornaigil
Nearest town:
Ullapool (60km SW)
OS reference:
NC457450
OS sheet:
9
Latitude:
58° 21' 59 N
Longitude:
4° 38' 17.13 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Dun Dornadilla (Broch) by Rhiannon

“Dun Dornadilla is twenty-four feet high, and the segment of it still standing is built in a beautifully regular manner. The outer circumference measures 150 feet; the diameter of the inner court is 29 feet, and that of the wall 8 feet 6 inches. Above the doorway there is a triangular stone lintel, 4 feet 10 inches at base, and 3 feet 4 from apex to baseline. Cordiner, who visited the spot in 1780, mentions that three distinct rows of galleries could be traced within the walls, and that he walked up and down different stairs from the first to the second storey, but that the third storey was partially filled up owing to the displacement of the stones. Now, as the result of the depredations of time, and the still more destructive influence of human hands, ony the remains of the first and second galleries can be discerned.
From the Celtic Monthly, v1, 1893.
archive.org/stream/celticmonthlymag00mack#page/52

Image credit: .
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 18, 2017
Image of Dun Dornadilla (Broch) by LesHamilton

Dun Dornaigil stands above the Strathmore River amid striking scenery.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Jun 17, 2017
Image of Dun Dornadilla (Broch) by summerlands

Show’s the scale of the ‘door’ quite nicely – against a three year old!

Image credit: Nicki MacRae
summerlands
summerlands Jan 6, 2011
Image of Dun Dornadilla (Broch) by GLADMAN

Emphasising the location above Strathmore River

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 21, 2010
Image of Dun Dornadilla (Broch) by Mr Hamhead

This is a replacement for the earlier image that I have now deleated...taken in 1990. see notes below.

Mr Hamhead
Mr Hamhead Dec 18, 2006

Articles

Dun Dornadilla

C
CARL Jul 5, 2012

Visited 2.6.12

Now, this is what I call remote.
If you think the A838 in Sutherland is remote this is something else!
You have to travel south for a good 10 miles or more along a minor road off the A838.
No houses, no farms, no people – just a loch and a pretty valley to enjoy.

Despite being a Historic Scotland site it is not sign posted which I guess isn’t too surprising when you consider how far away from anyone / anything it is!
Eventually you arrive at the broch (right next to road) where there is a small lay by to park in.

An information board states that the broch has never been excavated.
I was disappointed to find that the doorway is blocked and the whole of the inside of the broch has been infilled and is now covered in grass. All you get to see is the outside.
The walls of the broch are pretty well preserved and stand to a height of about 6 metres.

On the plus side the scenery is lovely (as is everywhere in Sutherland) and the children enjoyed playing by a stream and watching tadpoles and a frog in a large puddle. A cuckoo sang out in the distance.

Driving to the broch I saw one of the strangest things I have ever seen. As I described, this place really is in the middle of nowhere, yet we passed a chap in the middle of the valley floor (full of spiky grass) with a petrol powered grass strimmer! Why on earth he was cutting the grass there I have no idea. He was miles from anyone and anything! Very odd.

Unless like me you are trying visit all the Historic Scotland sites I couldn’t really recommend the long detour off the A838 to visit the broch – although it is a pretty drive.

Dun Dornadilla

Mr Hamhead
Mr Hamhead Mar 30, 2004

The story behind the photo.....

It is early October 1990. I have driven all the way from Cornwall to Fife in a 1000cc Suzuki 4x4 with a dodgy radiator. After a few days in the Kingdom to recuperate and take on liquid (me, not the car) me and Brian head north to bag a hill or two.

We reach a pub in the middle of nowhere as the “sun” sets over the hills. Here we eat before carrying on up the road to the foot of Ben Hope. It is dark by the time we reach the broch....and it is also blowing a gale. The car has only got a canvas top but with the spirit of adventure flowing through our veins we settle down for the night.

Settling down means several spliffs, a packet of chocolate hob-nobs and John Peel on the radio. My lasting memory of that night is the cold, the rain and a Vietnamese version of “A hard rains gonna fall”.

Daylight arrives at last and the full glory of Sutherland is upon us. It is a land of rock and water and very little else. The broch stands proud beside us, the only thing that could have withstood last nights storm. If I remember rightly it has inner walls and a passage way all the way round inside. We breakfast within its shell before setting out up Ben Hope.

That’s another story...what a beast of a mountain. It was so cold we got to the top and turned right round and came straight back down.

As for Sutherland, it is a wonderful wild place. I am not sure how many TMA sites there are to visit but the landscape is just stunning. Sandwood Bay at the far North West tip is possibly one of the finest beaches in the UK.

One day I might get back there.

Folklore

Dun Dornadilla
Broch
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 18, 2017

Dun Dornghil, erroneously called Dornadilla, is represented at the termination of this Chapter. It was, in the memory of man, about thirty feet high, but is now much dilapidated. Not a stone of this fabric “is moulded by a hammer, nor is there any fog or other material used to fill up the interstices among the stone; yet the stones are most artfully laid together, seem to exclude the air, and have been piled with great mathematical exactness.”
The following verse concerning it, is repeated by the inhabitants.
Dun Dornghil Mac Duiff
Or an taobh ri meira don strha
Scheht mille o manir
Er an rod a racha na fir do Gholen.

Translation.
The Dun of Dornghiall, son of Duff,
Built on the side of the strath next to Rea,
Seven miles from the ocean,
And in the way by which the warriors travel to Caithness.*

* Rev. A. Pope, in Archaeologia, v.

From ‘The Scottish Gael; or, Celtic manners, as preserved among the Highlanders’ by James Logan (first published 1831).

Topics

Calling Greywether 4
Mr Hamhead
Mr Hamhead
Mar 2004

Sites within 20km of Dun Dornadilla

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