Archaeology Notes

Event ID 653608

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/653608

ND05NW 3 0432 5679.

(ND 0432 5679) Mound (NR)

OS 6" map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

On the E side of the road some 200 yards N of the N end of Loch Shurrery is a circular construction surrounded by a stone wall some 6ft in thickness. The entrance appears to have been from the SE. The internal diameter is about 26 ft. Opening out of the main enclosure towards the W and NW have been small circular enclosures of indefinite diameter. The whole structure is much overgrown.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

A circular enclosure, 8.0m in internal diameter and 20.0m overall. It has been systematically excavated and part of a paved floor has been exposed. The grassy outer bank, where exposed, is composed of small stones. The maximum height is 1.0m. Three breaks in the enclosing bank are probable excavation trenches.

Visited by OS (E G C) 10 April 1961.

(ND 0432 5679) Hut Circle (NR)

OS 6" map, (1963)

A round house, situated on the valley floor close to Loch Shurrery, is generally as described by MacLaren, but turf accumulation has obscured some of the details. The remains exposed in the excavation are typical of a hut circle, but around the NW arc the width of tumble is about 6.0m, suggesting an unusually massive construction in this quarter, or possibly further subsidiary structures as yet unexcavated, and for this reason the term round house or possibly homestead is preferred. There is no evidence of associated cultivation. According to the keeper at Shurrery Lodge, the site was excavated in advance of the construction of a dam which it was thought would cause the site to be submerged; this threat has now receded. There is no local knowledge of the present location of the finds.

Revised at 1:10560.

Visited by OS (N K B) 15 November 1981.