Briar Cottage

NH59NE 11 centred 583 970

Found during field investigation and centred at NH 583 970, on a rocky W-facing slope there is a settlement of three circular stone-walled huts and an associated field system.

Hut 'A' measures 13.5m in internal diameter within a wall 1.9m thick faced with stones set on edge, which has been extensively mutilated on the N and E to provide material for the secondary wall within. The entrance in the NW appears to have been blocked and only its SW side survives defined by two stones set on edge with an upright block between. A recent structure lies immediately inside the entrance.

Within the hut walling in the S and SW ares the footings of a medial wall can be seen, possibly part of an earlier structure. The wall which divides the enclosed area is clearly secondary.

Hut 'B' measures c 6.0m in internal diameter with a wall spread to about 1.5m all round. The inner wall face is visible for most of its periphery but the outer face is no longer evident. The entrance in the E is ill-defined.

Hut 'C', 10.0m to the SE measures 11.0m between wall centres, with walling spread to about 2.0m in width on the W but barely visible on the E. The entrance is not evident.

The field system is defined by clearance heaps, lynchets and field walls forming cultivation plots averaging 50m by 30m.

Huts surveyed at 1/10560.

Visited by OS (ISS) 21 September 1973 and (NKB) 14 October 1969.

The huts (A-C) and the field system are as described. An additional hut (D) is located at NH 5864 9661. It is on a low rise and is reduced to a heather-covered circular platform, c. 12.0m diameter with vestiges of

a wall on the rim; an entrance is no longer apparent.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (JM) 3 November 1976.

(NH 5862 9719) A heather-covered, circular enclosure, 10m in diameter, with several piles of stones in close proximity.

Large stones form the wall of the enclosure, which cannot have been very high to judge by the amount of stone present.

R J Mercer 1980.

Mercer's enclosure description identifies with hut 'B'. There is no enclosure at the given map reference or its locale, damp open ground.

Visited by OS (J M) 10 June 1981.

NH 585 968 On the upper edge of the field system is a house platform. It measures 9.5m N-S by 8.5m with top and bottom revetments 1.0m high. The entrance probably lay on the NW.

D W Ross 1987.

The hut-circles within this field-system are largely as described in previous reports but most of the field-system has been destroyed by the creation of a plantation. However, portions of the field-system survive in fire-breaks where no trees have been planted.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), October 1989.