Description

Caisteal Odair is a promontory defended by a substantial, although tumbled, stone rampart. This is 120m long and from 2m to 3m wide, with a clearly visible entrance towards its W end, flanked and partially blocked, at the inner end, by large boulders. Traces of the foundations of stone-built rectilinear structures may be traced against the inner face of the rampart E of the entrance.

Elsewhere there are no visible remains within the area enclosed by the rampart, which is a landward sloping grassy area approximately 100m NE-SW by 150m NW-SE. This promontory fort is probably of Iron Age (500BC-500AD) date.

The area to be scheduled is bounded by a line 10m S of the visible S edge of the rampart, and elsewhere by the edge of turf at the head of low cliffs, as indicated in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

This monument is of national importance because of the information it can provide, by excavation and taken in comparison with a range of other fortified sites of broadly similar date, for the chronology and typological development of fortified sites in NW Scotland. It is a fine field example of what appears to be one of the simplest categories of fortification in the Western Isles.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland