Dun Mor Vaul (or simply Dun Mor; gd, Dùn Mòr) is an iron-age broch located on the north coast of the island of

Tiree Tiree (; gd, Tiriodh, ) is the most westerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The low-lying island, southwest of Coll, has an area of and a population of around 650. The land is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, and ...

, in Scotland.

Description

Dun Mor () is situated on a rocky knoll on the northern coast of island of

, about 1 kilometre northwest of the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depi ...

of Vaul. The broch consists of a drystone tower with an internal diameter of 9.2 metres with walls about 4.5 metres thick. The outer face of the wall survives to a maximum height of 2.2 metres. The entrance is on the southeast side. On the north side of the entrance passage is a small side-chamber, of a type usually called a "guard cell". The intramural cavity is well-preserved, and there are the remains of a staircase, which led to the upper levels, on the north side. The broch was additionally protected by two outer lines of defence, one drawn round the irregular margin of the summit on all sides, and the other taking the form of a hornwork which restricted access from the landward side of the knoll.

Excavations

The broch was partly excavated around 1880, and it was almost completely excavated by E. W. MacKie in 1962–4. The excavations showed that there had been two phases of occupation before the broch was built. In the earliest phase (5th century BC) there appears to have been a wooden hut, which may have been destroyed by fire. This was followed by a more extensive settlement occupying a larger proportion of the summit area. After an interval of unknown duration (possibly several centuries) the knoll was reoccupied and the construction of the broch and its outworks began. The construction of the broch was dated by

radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was de ...

to the 1st century AD. It appears to have been used initially as a communal refuge, but by the 2nd century it had become instead the permanent residence of a single family. Before long the upper storeys of the broch wall were demolished, and a round house (or an aisled wheel-house) was constructed within the interior. It seems the broch was abandoned in the mid 3rd-century, the latest datable artefact from the interior being a fragment of a Roman glass bowl made in the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhineland ...

between 160 and 250 AD. The finds include large quantities of native pottery sherds; fragments of Roman glass and samian-ware and coarse-ware vessels; bronze and silver spiral finger-rings; rotary querns; quartzite strike-lights; glass ring-beads; tools and dice of bone; and several tools used in weaving and the working of metals. The finds are now in the

Hunterian Museum The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...

, University of Glasgow.

References

External links

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Argyll and Bute Brochs Scheduled monuments in Scotland Tiree

Description

Excavations

References

Further reading

External links