Archaeology Notes

Event ID 840049

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/840049

NH53SW 11 centred 51151 31775

Centred at NH 510 321 is a settlement of six circular stone-walled huts (A to F) with a field system.

The hut diameters are given between wall centres.

Hut 'A' is mutilated, measuring about 9.5m in diameter with the wall spread to about 2.5m all round. A few inner and outer facing stones are evident but insufficient for accurate measurement. The 'simple' entrance, in the SE, is about 1.2m wide.

'B' set into the foot of a W-facing slope, is mutilated, measuring about 14.0m in diameter. It is defined by a scarp in the NW arc, a wall spread to about 2.5m in the SW arc widening to about 4.0m in the SE arc. The NE arc is almost completely destroyed. An outer facing stone is evident in the E. The widening of the wall in the SE may represent the S side of a 'clubbed entrance', which faces onto a group of seventeen cairns (See NH53SW 15 for enlargement of 'B' & cairns)

'C', measures about 14.5m in diameter with the wall spread to about 2.5m at the rear splaying to about 4.0m at the 'clubbed' entrance in the E. Almost the whole of the N arc is destroyed, elsewhere it is denuded. A field wall joins the hut in the WSW. Another approaches the S arc from the SE and appears to have joined the hut, but mutilation at this point makes this uncertain.

'D', set into an E-facing slope, measures about 11.0m in diameter with the wall spread to about 2.5m at the rear widening to about 3.5m at the entrance, about 1.0m due to build up rather than a 'clubbed entrance'. 'E' is mutilated and measures about 12.0m in diameter. The NW arc is virtually destroyed, elsewhere the wall is spread to about 2.5m. A few outer facing stones can be seen on the S arc. The 'simple' entrance, about 1.5m wide, is in the SE.

'F' is 8.5m in diameter with the wall spread to about 2.5m all round. A few outer facing stones can be seen round the S arc. The 'simple' entrance, about 1.0m wide, is in the ESE.

The "huts" seen on APs at NH 5060 3231 are vegetation marks combined with stone clearance heaps. The field system is marked by stone clearance heaps, lynchets and extensive walls, with fields varying in size from about 60m by 40m to 25m by 10m.

'A' 'B' and 'F' Divorced Survey 1/10 000 scale.

Visited by OS (R L) 25 February 1970

Two more huts 'G' and 'H' were found.

'G' is visible as a levelled area at the base of a slight natural scarp with traces of a wall around it measuring about 25.0m between its centres. The entrance is not evident.

'H' levelled into an E-facing slope measures about 9.0m between the centres of a rubble wall spread to about 2.5m. The inner wall face is visible intermittently in the E arc. The entrance in the E is ill defined.

Rubble from the wall has spilled into the hut in the W.

Huts C,D,E,G & H surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (A A) 7 December 1971