Archaeology Notes
Date 1979
Event ID 720294
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/720294
NT66SW 19 centred 631 649.
(Approx NT 630 649). Cairns and Hut Circles, Kingside Hill: Round the highest part of Kingside Hill (about 1100ft OD), about 3/4mile NE of Mayshiel are a number of small cairns and two hut circles, all overgrown with grass but with stones up to 12ins in breadth apparent. 'A' lies above the brow of the hill, some 400 yards S of Kingside Burn. It is 18ft in diameter and 1ft high. Being slightly hollow in the centre, it is difficult to say whether it is a hut circle or a robbed cairn. 'B, 68 yards SE of 'A' is a cairn, 18ft in diameter and 2ft high. 'C', about 62 yards NE of 'B', is a hut circle 7ft in diameter within a wall 4ft thick and about 1ft high with signs of an entrance to the S and three boulders 14ins in diameter on the outer wall face in the SE. 'D', some 21ft S of 'C', is a hut circle, 4 1/2ft in diameter within a wall about 3ft thick. 'E': about 100 yards S of 'C' are the remains of a cairn, 25ft in diameter and 1 1/2ft high; the stones removed from its SE side lie in a heap beside it. Cairn 'F' lies about 40 yards ESE of 'C'. It is 10ft in diameter and 1ft high with four or five stones, 1 1/2ft by 1ft, piled on top and numerous smaller stones appearing through the grass.
A further group of five cairns, 12ft to 14ft in diameter, lies some distance down the SW slope of the hill. Four appear complete, but only a few kerbstones remain of the fifth.
(RCAHMS 1924, visited 1913)
Area centred NT 631 649. Kingside Hill is low, rounded and largely under pasture. On its W side in an area of approximately 16 hectares are about 20 probable clearance cairns, randomly spaced but predominantly situated around the edge of the summit area. They vary in condition and size and include all the features noted by the RCAHMS. Mostly circular and turf-covered, they range from large stones in dumps 3.0m in diameter to cairns of small stones up to 8.5m in diameter and 0.7m high. Some have been robbed to base level.
This clearance is not recent, but its date is otherwise uncertain. No individual field plots or occupation evidence was found.
Visited by OS (JRL) 30 April 1979
