Easterton

NH59NW 4 509 997.

(NH 509 998) Tumuli (NR)

OS 6"map, Sutherland, 2nd ed., (1908).

A group of four or five small circular mounds.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 30 June 1909.

Centred at NH 509 997, on a S slope, is a settlement of 4 stone-walled huts ('A'-'D') and an associated field system.

The huts, set into the slope, are all circular, with the entrances in 'A', 'B' and 'C' at the point between the excavated and built up areas. Hut 'A' measures 15.3m internal diameter with the wall spread to about 2.5m all round. The outer wall face cannot be seen but the inner face, of stones set on edge, is visible intermittently. The entrance is in the E. A tumbled wall crosses the hut from E to W from the N side of the entrance forming two semi-circular areas, the N part being smaller than the S. It appears to be of similar construction to the hut wall, but is probably later and built with stones from the N walling of the hut.

'B', the best preserved, measures 11.8m internal diameter within a wall 1.8m thick in the E, splaying to 2.7m at the 'clubbed' entrance in the W. The inner wall face, of stones set on edge, is visible inter- mittently around the whole of the circumference and occasional outer facing stones can be seen.

'C' measures about 9.0m in diameter between wall centres, with the wall spread to 3.0m in the N arc widening to 4.6m down the slope in the S. The entrance, in the SE, is poorly defined.

'D' measures about 14.6m in diameter between wall centres, but is so mutilated that the wall thickness and the position of the entrance cannot be determined.

Huts surveyed at 1:2500.

The field system, formed by stone clearance heaps and lynchets, is best preserved in the vicinity of huts 'A' and 'B' where a typical field measures about 24m by 12m. Elsewhere later cultivation has encroached upon it.

Visited by OS (I S S) 18 September 1973 and (E G C) 12 June 1963.

No change to previous field report.

Surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (J M) 27 October 1976.