Archaeology Notes
Date - 1977
Event ID 651920
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/651920
NC82NE 1 centred 866 295.
(Centred NC 866 295) Hut Circles & Enclosures (NR)
OS 6"map, 1962.
A settlement of hut-circles, field clearance heaps and field banks, stretching for about 400m along the lower west slopes of Kinbrace Hill in which it is possible to identify, by analogy with Fairhurst's excavations at Kilphedir (NC 91 NE25)(H Fairhurst and D B Taylor 1974), two periods of occupation. The first consists of simple huts associated with field clearance heaps, and dates from about 500 BC. The second consists of at least one strongly built hut, possibly a rebuild of one of the earlier type, associated with field walls and dating from about 130 BC.
The simple huts, most of which were found by field surveyor (Information from OS (E G C) 25 May 1961) whose visit occurred after heather-burning, number about twelve, and some are not true circles. They consist of earth and stone banks 0.5m in maximum height and 8m to 15m in diameter. At least six have entrances in the west, the others being in the SE.
The later type of hut occurs at NC 86812963 (Hut 'A') and was excavated by Curle in 1910 (A O Curle 1911). It is almost identical with Kilphedir Hut V being oval 9.1m by 10.6m internally with a paved entrance passage 4.5m long in the SE. The stone-faced walls vary from 2.4m to 7.3m in thickness and Curle identified a souterrain or mural gallery in the west wall. His excavation produced finds of coarse pottery and part of a lignite armlet which he donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS, Accession no HD 440-2). Adjoining the hut on the NE, and connected by a possibly secondary entrance, are the remains of a small oblong enclosure. As at Kilphedir, a bank approaches the hut entrance from the west at a distance of only a few feet from the hut. Another possibly hut of this type occurs at NC 86882968 (hut (B') where a large green mound, outside entrance on the SW, may indicate the presence of a souterrain. The irregularly shaped fields are enclosed by courses of stones, earth and stone banks, or low, spread turf banks whose average height is 0.3m but on the west side of the road, towards the north, they reach a maximum height of 1m.
At NC 86812962 is a turf mound with a 4m by 3m by 0.3m deep depression which RCAHMS (RCAHMS 1911) thought might be a kiln. At NC 86842928 is a slight depression 2m in diameter and 0.2m deep, banked on the SW side, which also resembles a kiln.
(RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; A O Curle 1911; H Fairhurst and D B Taylor 1974).
This settlement comprises fourteen stone-walled huts, but since the previous field investigator's visit, the area to the E of the road has been ploughed and afforested, mutilating and obscuring all features except huts 'A' and 'B'. 'A', as described above, is now covered by heather and turf.
'B' measures internally 14.0m SSW-NNE by 11.0m; it is set into the slope in the NE, where the floor is 1.5m below the top of the wall scarp. The wall is approximate- ly 3.0m thick in the NW, widening to 8.5m at the entrance in the SSW arc, at the west side of which the possible souterrain is located. The entrance unusually wide at 4.5m, is blocked by a small heather-covered mound of uncertain purpose, possibly a clearance heap.
The huts described below are on the W side of the road, unaffected by afforestation. 'C' is 9.0m in diameter within a wall, whose SW half has an inner face of almost contiguous slabs on edge. The wall appears to have been 2.1m broad. The probable entrance, now stone-choked, is in the W. 'D' and 'E' have internal diameters of 6.0m and 10.0m respectively, with walls approximately 1.8m wide. Both are entered from the W. 'F' is severely mutilated but appears to have measured about 10.0m in diameter within a turf overgrown wall about 1.8m wide. Several inner and outer upright facing stones are exposed including four portal slabs at the choked entrance in the SE indicating a wall thickness of 2.7m here. A compartment in the north of the hut may be an original feature or it could indicate later use or mutilation. A later wall overlies and obscures the NW arc. 'G' is a very ill-defined hut visible as a platform about 12.5m in diameter within a low, broken, turf covered wall. No obvious entrance is visible.
The two possible kilns mentioned appear to be the remains of clearance heaps. The first has been totally destroyed by forestry ploughing. The revealed contents are typical of a clearance heap. The second has another clearance heap close by it.
Only vestigal remains of the field system survive in the forest E of the road and the association between it and the huts is obscured. On the W side of the road there are one or two clearance heaps and some lynchets. There is an unusually well-preserved system of field walls surviving generally as single lines of boulders on edge. These appear contemporary with the huts but there is incursion of later walls associated with run-rig. There are cultivation plots visible, average size 25.0m by 15.0m.
Revised at 1/10,000
Visited by OS (J B) 14 January 1977
