Interesting Sites Nearby
User Reviews
Dun Telve is one of the best preserved Iron Age brochs in Scotland. The neighbouring broch of Dun Troddan lies 470 metres to the east, and the 'semi-broch' known as Dun Grugaig is around 2.5 kilometres further east.
Dun Telve is over 20m in diameter and the portion that still stands is about 10m high. Behind the narrow, west-facing entrance doorway, a 5m-long passage leads into the interior.
Along the passage is a small side-chamber, sometimes called a ‘guard cell’. The door (now missing) within the passage was well secured by a bar hole in the wall, just as in a medieval castle.
The section left standing gives a perfect cross-section to show how brochs were constructed. The two concentric drystone walls are tied together by large horizontal slabs. These slabs also form the floors of the narrow galleries between.
Access up the tower is by a winding stone stair, and openings at intervals once gave access to the upper floors. The presence of two horizontal stone ledges, or scarcements, up the height of the surviving section suggests that there were two upper floors. The top floor would have been around 9m above ground level.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.