Dun Beag

Coordinates: 57°21′37″N 6°25′33″W / 57.360355°N 6.425767°W / 57.360355; -6.425767

Dun Beag is an iron-age broch located about 1 kilometre northwest of the village of Struan on the west coast of the island of Skye, in Scotland.

Description

Dun Beag (grid reference NG339386) is situated at the north end of a small rocky knoll. The broch consists of a drystone tower with a diameter of around 18.6 metres with walls about 4 metres thick at the base. The broch currently stands to a maximum height of 2 metres.

The interior has a diameter of about 11 metres, and the entrance is on the east side. Internally three openings are visible in the broch wall. One leads to a small chamber; a second leads to a long narrow gallery within the wall; and a third leads to the stone stair of which some twenty steps survive.

History

The broch was visited by Thomas Pennant in 1772, and it was still a substantial structure, with a height of perhaps 4 metres. The following year a broch near Ullinish, which was probably Dun Beag, was visited by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell during their Tour to the Hebrides. Around half of its wall height has been lost since the 18th century.

Dun

Dun is a generic term for an ancient or medieval fort. It is mainly used in the British Isles to describe a kind of hill fort and also a kind of Atlantic roundhouse. The term comes from Irish dún or Scottish Gaelic dùn (meaning "fort"), and is cognate with Old Welsh din, whence Welsh dinas (meaning "city") comes.

In some areas duns were built on any suitable crag or hillock, particularly south of the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth. There are many duns on the west coast of Ireland and they feature in Irish mythology. For example, the tale of the Táin Bó Flidhais features Dún Chiortáin and Dún Chaocháin.

Duns seem to have arrived with Celtic cultures in about the 7th century BC. Early duns had near vertical ramparts made of stone and timber. Vitrified forts are the remains of duns that have been set on fire and where stones have been partly melted. Use of duns continued in some parts into the Middle Ages.

Duns are similar to brochs, but are smaller and probably would not have been capable of supporting a very tall structure. Good examples of this kind of dun can be found in the Western Isles of Scotland, on artificial islands in small lakes.

Dunö

Dunö is a locality situated in Kalmar Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 384 inhabitants in 2010.

References

Dün (band)

Dün was a French progressive rock band, active from 1978 to 1981, during which they played shows with Magma, Art Zoyd, Etron Fou Leloublan, and almost became a part of the short-lived Rock in Opposition grouping of bands in Europe. In 1981, they recorded an album, Eros, that apparently never secured proper distribution, and as a result is quite rare.

The French label Soleil reissued the Eros album, which included the four tracks from the original LP plus four bonus tracks, three of which are early demo versions of the tracks on the original release.

Discography

Personnel

The Band

Additional Musicians