Archaeology Notes
Event ID 679701
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/679701
NN96SE 27 976 605.
Centred at NN 976 605 on a S-facing slope is a settlement of thirteen hut circles ('A'-'N'), and a contemporary field system marked by stone clearance heaps, lynchets and field walls.
'A' set into the slope is 9.0m in diameter between the centres of an ill-defined wall. No entrance is evident. About 3.0m outside the W arc is a circular enclosure about 4.0m in diameter, possibly associated with the hut but more like a later shieling.
'B' is 12.0m in diameter between wall centres. The ill-defined entrance is in the SSE. Adjacent to the hut on the E side are the ill-defined traces of a possible enclosure about 10.0m E-W by 4.5m.
'C' is 11.0m in diameter between wall centres. The entrance in the SSE is flanked on its E side by a large boulder.
'D' is c. 10.5m in diameter between the centres of a very ill-defined wall. No entrance is visible.
'E' is heavily overgrown but appears to be an unusual double Dalrulzian complex. It consists of a circular wall c. 15.0m in diameter destroyed in the N and with an entrance in the SE leading into a scarcely discernible central area c. 10.5m in diameter. This abuts, or may be overlaid, in the NE by an irregular-shaped enclosure marked by a strong wall spread to 2.5m and measuring 17.5m NE-SW by 14.5m between its centres. An entrance midway along the SE side leads into a scarcely discernible area c. 10.5m in diameter. A field wall leads SE from the NE side of the entrance.
'F' on a slight knoll, is ill-defined measuring about 10.5m diameter. No entrance is evident.
'G' is 10.0m in diameter between wall centres. The ill-defined entrance is in the S.
'H' is 13.0m in diameter between wall centres. The ill-defined entrance in the S.
'J' is ill-defined and mutilated in the NW by a grouse butt, and measures 11.0m in diameter. No entrance is evident.
'K' is a denuded "Dalrulzian" house 14.0m in diameter between outer wall centres, with an ill-defined central area c. 7.5m in diameter.
200m due E of this hut, on the SE side of the road, is an ill-defined platform which may be a possible hut stance. 'L', 'M' and 'N' are each about 13.0m in diameter but are very poorly preserved with no entrances visible.
Parts of the field system are overlaid by traces of rig and furrow cultivation with associated field walls and occasional turf-covered foundations of rectangular buildings.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (ISS) 29 October 1973
This settlement, threatened by forestry, was surveyed during April 1987. Vegetation and soil surveys were undertaken at the same time. In a ten week excavation season, between May and July 1987, four trenches were opened to investigate seven of the fourteen houses in the settlement. House 1 (OS House C) was sub-circular with two concentric stone walls which merged to form a broad, single wall near the paved doorway. A central cooking area was found but no internal post ring.
Houses 2 and 3 (OS Houses H and G) were only partly excavated. Both had circular single stone walls but an outer stone wall on the E side of House 2 overlaid part of House 3. Both had central hearth areas.
Houses 4 and 5 (OS House E) were almost identical, with House 5 apparently later than House 4.
House 5 was circular with a light timber outer wall which had a stone element near the paved doorway. The stone element projected to form the door passage then turned around the house to form an enclosure roughly concentric with it. Internally the house had a narrow, shallow 'ring ditch', a post ring, and a roughly central, stone line cooking pit filled with potboilers. Between the cooking pit and the post ring was another shallow 'ring ditch'. Both 'ring ditches' were filled with burnt and charcoal stained soil which also spread over part of the house floor. To the E of the doorway, in the 'chamber' defined by the stone element of the house wall and the enclosure wall, was a dump of used pot boilers. House 4 was similar to House 5 but lacked the stone element of the house wall, the inner 'ring ditch', and the layer of burnt material. Two cooking pits were found, one like that in House 5. The fourth trench was opened over parts of Houses 6 and 7 (OS Houses K and J). House 6 was double stone walled and House 7, single stone walled. House 7 had a central cooking area.
Material for radiocarbon and/or thermoluminescence dating was recovered from six of the seven houses. Among the artefacts recovered were a small blue glass bead, a bronze pin, iron objects, some sherds of pottery and two saddle querns.
J Rideout 1987.
Correlation of 1987 CEU areas and houses with OS houses.
CEU area 1 CEU house 1 OS house C
CEU area 2 CEU house 2 OS house H
CEU area 2 CEU house 3 OS house G
CEU area 3 CEU house 4 OS house E
CEU area 3 CEU house 5 OS house E
CEU area 4 CEU house 6 OS house J
CEU area 4 CEU house 7 OS house K
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 12 December 1990.
Survey, excavation and specialist analyses of a hut-circle group containing Dalrulzion-type round-houses revealed evidence of exploitation of Moulin Moor from the Neolithic to the present day. The hut-circles were dated to the later Bronze Age to Iron Age periods and a sub-rectangular house was dated to the later first millenium AD.
J S Rideout 1995
The excavation archive from Badyo / Carn Dubh has been catalogued. It consists of photographic material, drawings and manuscripts.
Historic Scotland Archive Project (FD) 1997
