Dun Beag Broch

Dun Beag stands on a rocky knoll beside the A863 near Bracadale on Skye, looking over Loch Bracadale to the Cuillin Hills, and is one of the best preserved brochs on the island. These Iron Age round stone towers are found only in Scotland, and Dun Beag was built about 2,000 to 2,500 years ago, probably as much for status as for defence. Its narrow entrance passage keeps the checks for a timber door, with an opening to a small chamber that may have been a guardroom, and another to a stair inside the wall of which 20 steps survive. How tall it once stood is unknown, though about ten metres seems likely by comparison with more complete brochs. Medieval and later coins found here in the 1910s suggest people were still using or visiting it long after the Iron Age. From the small car park across the road, reviewers describe a steep ten-minute walk uphill through grazing sheep, muddy after rain; there are no toilets.