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Field Visit
Date 15 November 1973
Event ID 684123
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/684123
NO15NW 14 centred 102 571
See also NO05NE 147 and NO15NW 1.
The area around the Grey Cairn (NO15NW 1) is studded with cairns to the E and S and with groups of huts to the N and W. The latter often occur in groups of two and measure from 28' - 30' in diameter with walls from 2' - 3' thick. The entrances are in the S.
Excavation of a hut to the W produced charred wood and a fragment of bronze, like the pin of a brooch. One of the hut circles N of the Grey Cairn had a flagstone in the centre, and a small space near to it enclosed by stones was found to be filled with about 2' of black unctuous earth. The deposits in some of the hut circles of charred wood and fragments of burnt bones were so much the same as those in the cairns, as to suggest that burials may have taken place in them after they were used as huts.
(J Stuart 1868)
Centred at NO 102 571 is an extensive field system marked by stone clearance heaps, ruinous walls and lynchets, amongst which are 18 circular stone-walled huts, 4 cairns (NO 15 NW 1), a possible ring cairn (NO 15 NW 15), and a stone circle (NO 15 NW 16).
The huts are generally visible as level platforms set into the hillside edged by collapsed stone walls spread from two to three metres in width with occasionally inner and outer facing stones protruding. Entrances, where visible, are in the S quadrant. With the exception of nos. 9, 10, 12 and 16, all diameters are given between wall centres.
Hut 1 is 12.5m in diameter.
Hut 2 is 10.5m in diameter.
Hut 3 is 16.0m in diameter.
Hut 4 is 12.0m in diameter.
Hut 5, adjacent to 4, is 11.0m in diameter.
Hut 6 is 10.0m in diameter. On the W, 2.0m outside the house wall, another similar wall curves around the hut (in the Dalrulzion fashion) and terminates on cairn 'D' outside the N side of the hut.
Hut 7, adjacent to 6, is 12.5m in diameter.
Hut 8, is 11.0m in diameter. There is an unusually large inner facing slab in the SW.
Hut 9, in a grassy area, has an inner face of slabs on edge, particularly well-defined in the E. It measures 12.5m in internal diameter.
Hut 10, similar to 9, measures 11.5m internally.
Hut 11, ploughed and afforested, is about 11.0m in diameter. A vague hollow, 10.0m in diameter, on its NW side may be another destroyed hut. Hut 12, also afforested, shows several inner facing stones giving an internal diameter of 8.5m. The W side of the entrance extends S to form a windbreak. The E side is formed by a slab on edge. There is a ditch around the inside of the wall on the E and N, possibly due to excavation.
Hut 13 is 15.0m in diameter.
Hut 14, ploughed and afforested, is 10.5m in diameter.
Hut 15 is 13.5m in diameter. Abutting on the W side is a platform 12.0m in diameter encroached on by a small rectangular building foundation and two modern walls. This may be another ruinous hut.
Hut 16 shows several inner facing stones and is 9.0m in diameter internally.
Hut 17 is 13.5m in diameter.
Hut 18 is c. 12.0m in diameter. the SE arc is mutilated. A small rectangular level area on the W, bounded partly by a field wall, is probably a cultivation plot.
At several places amongst the clearance heaps are later rectangular foundations with associated walls and some rig and furrow cultivation, and at least three corn drying kilns. Some are barely visible and must be of considerable age. One at NO 1087 5683 is 17.0m x 6.0m with a central entrance in one of the heavily bowed longer walls. Extent of field system shown on 6" sheet.
Huts 9 and 10 surveyed at 1:2500; others at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (AA) 15 November 1973
