You know the feeling when a headache suddenly clears? Everything seems better and brighter from one moment to another.
Well, that’s what happened when Camille and I went up to Dunan Muasdale (colloquially known as Muasdale Dun) for the first time this year. Described by Canmore as an “almost circular dun measuring 13.5m by 12m internally”, this old lookout spot sits on top of a rocky hill about a mile from the ocean.
Whenever I walk up the road toward the peninsula’s interior, I think, “What must it have been like to carry fish up from the sea to feed the people who kept watch in this thing?” At one point, the four-metre-thick walls were much taller. There’s probably been some type of structure there since prehistoric times – it’s such an obvious spot for a dun.
But nobody knows. Well, officially. Out here, there are still many things to discover and many structures yet to record.
Trudge up the road a couple more miles and you’ll walk straight into the clear remains of a prehistoric village, with multiple hut circles, a mound and a cist. Several thousand years ago, babies were born there and brought out to see the sun set over Islay. There were wolves and lynx living in the old-growth forest, and native wild boar on the menu for supper.
You won’t find that place marked on an Ordnance Survey map – not yet. It’s there, though.
It feels grounding to walk the same routes as our ancestors. The soil here is rich; excellent for crops. Neolithic farmers knew that when they began rolling the biggest boulders onto the edges of the ancient fields they dug. Humans know where best to settle.
I’ll show you around when it gets warmer and brighter. We’ll go to the half-built mansion house, now mostly fallen away. Then, we’ll take the winding route up to what we call “Heart Rock” – a wide, flat stone by the roadway, covered in cup marks – before visiting an ancient settlement nestling in forestry land at the top of the hill. Finally, we’ll hike back down into the woods and explore Achaglass, with its cottages, sheep pens and illegal whisky still (well, what’s left of it) embedded in the rocky burnside.
For now, here’s a glimmering view from the top of the dun. Isn’t it beautiful?
