Allt Achadh Na Teanga

NC60NE 45.00 6559 0735

NC60NE 45.01 6539 0759 Allt Leacach Small cairns; Lynchets

On the well-drained, heather-covered, S-facing slopes above the head of the Allt Achadh na Teanga, and to the E of the Allt Leacach, there is a group of structures comprising a hut-circle, a building and at least thirteen shieling-huts. These stand within a scattering of small cairns in an area of ground noticeably smoother than the surrounding terrain and measuring about 150m from NE to SW by 100m transversely. All these features, and a much larger area of often wetter ground to the W and S, are enclosed by a dyke which runs from the Allt Leacach at NC 6531 0746, around the N edge of the huts before fading out in boggy ground at NC 6569 0741. An area of small cairns with traces of lynchets on the hillside beyond this dyke to the NW is described under NC 60NE 45.01.

The hut-circle (ROG95 613, NC 6565 0738) is set into the slope on the N and terraced out on the S. It measures 9.8m in diameter within a stony bank 0.3m high and spread to 1.3m in thickness. The wall has been robbed on the S and a later shieling-hut (ROG95 614) has been built in the SW quadrant. A later pen has also been constructed against the outer face of the hut-circle wall on the NW.

About 60m to the WSW of the hut-circle there are the slight remains of a three-compartment rectangular building (ROG95 572, NC 6558 0735), measuring 21.5m from NW to SE by 3.2m transversely within a wall again reduced to a stony bank 0.7m in thickness and nowhere more than 0.2m high. The entrance is on the SW side. The long axis of this building runs downslope, and it appears to narrow at the lower end, where a later turf-walled shieling-hut (ROG95 573) overlies it on the SW side.

The shieling-huts are scattered around the hut-circle, and around and to the S of the building. All but three of them measure between 3m and 5.2m in length by between 1.4m and 3m in breadth within walls invariably reduced to spread banks no more than 0.2m in height and up to 1.3m in thickness. The three exceptions measure internally 5.8m by 2m (ROG95 612), 7.5m by 2.2m (ROG95 573) and 7.8m by 2.1m (ROG95 618), all of which are divided into two compartments. Five huts appear to have been constructed entirely of turf; the other eight show at least some stone in their walls. At least one hut (ROG95 577) is constructed over an earlier hut, while another (ROG95 618), which may also have two phases of construction, has been built against one of the small cairns.

(ROG95 572-8, 611-8)

Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, PJD) 7 June 1995