Archaeology Notes

Event ID 661285

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/661285

NH63NW 17 centred 6470 3800

Not to be confused with Carn Glas chambered cairns (adjacent to E), for which see NH63NW 14.

Centred at NH 647 380 on a broad ridge, is a settlement of eight stone-walled huts (A - H) and an associated field system.

Hut 'A' is oval and the remainder are circular, with entrances visible in the E or SE arcs. Except for hut 'G', all measurements across the huts are given between wall centres.

Hut 'A', on a rise, mesaures c. 11.5m E-W by c. 10.0m, with the wall spread to c. 2.5m all round. The "simple" entrance is c. 1.5m wide.

'B' is c. 10.0m in diameter, the wall spread to c. 2.5m all round. It occurs in a cultivated field and is crossed by a fence. The entrance, c. 1.5m wide, is mutilated.

'C', on a knoll, is denuded, and measures c. 10.5m in diameter, with a wall spread to c. 2.5m all round. The entrance is mutilated.

'D' measures c. 13.5m in diameter with the wall spread to c. 2.5m all round. The SE arc is mutilated and the entrance is not evident.

'E' is c. 9.5m in diameter with a wall spread to c. 2.0m all round. The "simple" entrance is c. 1.5m wide.

'F', the best preserved, measures c. 13.0m in diameter, with the wall spread to c. 2.5m in the mutilated W arc widening to c. 3.5m at the "clubbed" entrance in the E, which is c. 1.3m wide internally, splaying to c. 3.0m externally. A mutilated field wall stops short of the hut in the W; it is impossible to determine if it joined the hut.

'G' is 7.2m internal diameter within a wall spread to c. 1.5m all round. The inner face is traceable as a discontinuous line of stones set on edge, and one upright stone of the outer face is visible in the SE, giving a wall thickness of 1.3m here. The entrance is mutilated.

Hut 'H', about 40.0m W of the chambered cairns named Carn Glas (NH63NW 14) is ill-defined, and measures c. 14.0m in diameter with a mutilated wall of indefinite width. The entrance is not apparent.

The field system comprises ruined field walls, lynchets, and stone clearance heaps, defining cultivation plots about 30.0m x 20.0m average size.

Huts A - D surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (N K B) 23 January 1970.

Huts A and E - H surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (A A) 26 November 1971.

Aerial photographs (RCAHMSAP 1994) reveal at least four further hut-circles at about NH 6499 3803, NH 6507 3836, NH 6462 3860 and NH 6477 3864. The small cairns and field-system cover a much larger area than delimited by the OS, extending as far as the easternmost hut-circle (NH 6507 3836), and for some 200m to the N of the northernmost hut-circle (NH 6477 3864). Fragments of what may be cord rig are visible on the aerial photographs across much of the area, but there are well-defined patches centred on NH 6462 3798, NH 6499 3803 and NH 6465 3855 (this cord rig lies within a field bank).

Information from RCAHMS (DCC) 31 January 1997 .

(Scheduling no. 11561). Scheduled in part as 'Achvraid, hut circles 1030m SSE of... the remains of two hut circles, visible as upstanding walls located on Essich Moor'.

(The scheduling map indicates the two scheduled hut circles as being at NH 6458 3796 and NH 6474 3793, being those denoted as 'B' and 'C' respectively on the OS 1:10,000 record sheet).

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 1 March 2007.

(Scheduling no. 11786). Also Scheduled in part as 'Achvraid, hut circles 800m SSE of... the remains of two hut circles, visible as upstanding walls... on a low ridge on Essich Moor,... just to the E of Carn Glas chambered cairns (NH63NW 14)'.

(The scheduling map indicates the two scheduled hut circles as being apparently-new discoveries, at NH 6489 3832 and NH 6491 3828 respectively).

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 1 March 2007.