Field Visit
Date 10 August 1994
Event ID 767043
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/767043
NC01SW 33 0229 1266
There are a number of features on the E side of Achnahaird Bay, S of the outflow from Loch a' Chaoruinn, comprising two hut-circles, a building, a small hut, lazy-beds and several lengths of bank.
The hut-circles stand above the shore, about 150m apart. That to the S (ACHIL94 458; NC 0229 1266) measures 7.4m in diameter within a wall 1.1m thick and 0.7m high. Facing stones survive on both sides of the wall, particularly the inner one. The entrance is on the W. The hut-circle to the N (ACHIL94 459; NC 0229 1281) is oval on plan, measuring 7.3m N-S by 6.3m transversely within a wall 0.9m thick and 0.4m high. It has been terraced up on the W, where the ground level within is about 0.5m above that without, and a ramped approach leads to the entrance, which is on the SW. Short stretches of stony bank run off to the SW, NE and SE, the latter two apparently forming an enclosure which abuts the low cliff to the E of the hut-circle.
The building and the hut stand 20m apart in heather-covered ground above the shore and about 150m NNW of the second hut-circle. The building (ACHIL94 461; NC 0227 1295) measures 6.7m E-W by 3.7m within a faced-rubble wall 0.7m thick and 0.5m high which has an entrance on the S. The remains of a possibly earlier building extend 3.6m to the W. The hut lies 20m to the S at NC 0227 1293 (ACHIL94 460). It has rounded ends and measures 4.2m E-W by 2.2m transversely within walls 0.6m thick and 0.3m high.
Stretching from the head of the bay, along the shore past the structures described above, and then inland to Loch a' Chaoruinn, there are a number of banks and drystone dykes, some of which form subrectangular enclosures. These banks clearly do not all belong to the same phase, and many of them may be of nineteenth century date. One bank, however, which at its N end cuts a bank associated with the N hut-circle, is overlain farther S by lazy-bed cultivation. This dyke may be that noted on Morrison's 1775 survey of Coigach (SRO, E746/189) as a 'proposed stone dyke from loch [ie Loch Vatachan] to seaside'. The lazy-beds are situated on ground rising gently from the raised beach. Two areas were identified, to the N and S of the S hut-circle, together amounting to about 1.5ha.
The 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Cromartyshire (Detached) 1881, sheets ib and iiia) shows many of the banks and drystone dykes, as well as the building (ACHIL94 461) which by then was unroofed.
(ACHIL94 458-61)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 10 August 1994
