Dùn Beic
Dùn Beic is a dun located on the Inner Hebridean island of Coll. It is located at and is thought to date to between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. The etymology of the dun's name is uncertain; one possibility is that it could be made up of a personal name. The dun appears in local legend as being one of several fortresses held by Norsemen, who were defeated in battle against the ancestor of the Macleans of Coll. There have been several archaeological finds at Dùn Beic; these include pieces of flint, burnt bone, and fragments of incised pottery. Etymology The early 20th century antiquary Erskine Beveridge was uncertain of the etymology of Dùn Beic. He noted that Beic is pronounced "Veyik" and speculated that it could be the Gaelic for "peak" or "beak". He also considered the possibility that the name could possibly be of non-Gaelic origin. Another possibility he considered was that it could represent a proper name and noted a historical figure—a Dál Riatan king named Béc. According to the 19th century historian W. F. Skene, Béc was the head of the branch of Cenél nGabráin, who possessed the southern half of Kintyre. Skene stated that they were descended from Conaing, one of the sons of Áedán mac Gabráin. Béc is recorded in the Annals of Ulster as being killed in the year 707 ("Béc grandson of Dúnchad was killed"). According to Beveridge, he was slain by members of Cenél Loairn. Description Dùn Beic is located on the Inner Hebridean island of Coll. It is situated on the island's northeast coast, about west-northwest of Totronald. It occupies the crest of a jutting cliff surrounded by the sea, which stands high. A dun is a building, or enclosed settlement, with a circular stone wall; usually situated on an elevated position. Dùn Beic's wall runs around the margin of the summit, though it has almost completely disappeared from sight. A few stretches of it are visible in the east, where the remains of the wall's rubble core and three courses of outer facing-stones stand high. The wall's course in the southwest and west is marked by a grassy bank. The plan of Dùn Beic's wall appears to have been oval-shaped, about northeast to southwest by . In 1903, Beveridge stated that upon the summit there were the scanty remains of several small buildings. In the centre of the west-most building, Beveridge dug a hole and found several round or oval stones which measured on average about an inch in length. When the site was visited by the Ordnance Survey (OS) in 1972, there was no evidence for any of these buildings. The OS, however, did find a rectangular-shaped hollow, about by about , which was considered to have been his excavation. In 1980, a group representing the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) visited the site and their survey of the interior of the dun described much of it as being unsuitable for habitation