Dùn Dubh

[2] Beveridge considered the fort to have been built on a very strong site since the west and south sides were inaccessible due to the sheer precipices.

In 1972, the site was visited by the Ordnance Survey who could find no trace of the well and determined that the only stones in the area were from the fort itself.

The 1976 Ordnance Survey map, however, shows a well about 50 metres (160 ft) southeast of the fort, at grid reference NM18415939.

[1] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several Coll traditions were published which concerned several fortifications (forts, duns, and crannogs) on the island—one of which was Dùn Dubh.

[3] Campbell's version runs as follows: The Laird of Dowart was on his way to gather rent in Tiree, and sent ashore to Kelis (Caolas), Coll, for meat (biadhtachd).

The woman of the house told MacLean was not worth sending meat to, and Dowart kindly came ashore to see why she said so.

This led to a fight at Grimsari and is perhaps the reason why Dowart encouraged Iain Garbh to make himself master of Coll.

[3][5] Beveridge also made note of traditions of another battle fought near Grishipol, in which Iain Garbh and his followers defeated a force led by his step-father Gilleonan, chief of the MacNeils of Barra.

However, he conceded that this date was calculated by the fact that when the Macleans of Coll sold their estate on the island in 1854, it was believed that they had owned their lands there for exactly 472 years.

[3] Beveridge's version of the tradition runs as follows: Concerning the first of these two island-forts,—Dun Anlaimh, in the Upper Mill Loc,—there runs a somewhat detailed tradition to the effect that in it lived the Norse chief who held Coll long after the neighbouring islands had been abandoned by his comrades.

It is said that MacLean of Duart already possessed Tiree, and that one of his sons determined to attack the Norseman (presumably an Olaf) in this islet stronghold.