Dun Beag

Misty and wet again today, but that’s Skye for you. We have a very comfortable house and lots of reading to catch up on, so we will sit it out and hope the weather turns at some point. We are on top of a hill with great views all around, even through the rain.

We did have a trip across to Portree to pick up maps and information and managed a walk down by the harbour. On the way back we stopped at Dun Beag. This is a remarkable hill fort or broch dating from the Iron Age, around 2,300 years ago. It was built on top of a hill and it is thought that the chief of a clan would have lived here, but that it would have provided shelter for other villagers if there were invaders approaching.

Brochs, such as this one, are amazing feats of dry stone walling. They were around 13-20 metres in diameter with walls 4 metres thick. How high they were no one is quite sure, but this one has the remains of a staircase built into the wall, so obviously there would have been several levels.

Although we set off up the track towards the brooch, we never made it to the top - it started raining!