Blarbuie

NH63SE 15 673 343.

('A': NH 6730 3426) Enclosure (NR) ('B': NH 6730 3429) Hut Circle (NR) ('C': NH 6733 3439) Hut Circle (NR)

OS 25"map, (1965)

This settlement of three oval stone-walled huts (noted by Woodham) {Information from A A Woodham to OS 9 August 1963} and associated field system is situated on the spine of a ridge.

Hut circle 'A' (noted as an enclosure by OS field surveyor (W D J) 9 September 1963) measures 17.0m E-W by 14.0m overall, with a wall generally spread to c. 2.5m. The outer face of contiguous stones set on edge, and two or three inner facing stones are visible, suggesting a wall thickness of c. 1.4m. The wall is mutilated in the W arc, and at the entrance in the E.

'B' measures c. 12.5m E-W by c. 10.0m N-S between the centres of a denuded wall, best preserved on the E side where it is spread to c 2.5m. Several outer, and one or two inner facing stones are evident, giving a wall thickness of 1.3m. The entrance in the E is mutilated.

'C', on a rise, measures c. 11.0m N-S by c. 8.5m E-W between the centres of a denuded wall spread to c. 1.5m but destroyed in the SW. No entrance is apparent.

The field system comprises stone clearance heaps, lynchets, and occasional field walls forming cultivation plots varying between c. 30.0m x 25.0m and c. 12.0m square.

Surveyed at 1:2500. (visited by OS {W D J} 9 August 1963)

Visited by OS (N K B) 10 March 1970.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (A A) 11 January 1972.

Hut circles marked for preservation in an area due to afforested. Visited D W Ross, January 1984

There are three heather-covered hut-circles situated within small clearings along a ridge within a mature coniferous plantation to the W and S of Blarbuie.

The southernmost hut-circle (USN93 57, NH 6730 3427) measures 11m from ESE to WNW by 10m transversely within a heather-covered bank spread to 1.9m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The entrance, which is on the ESE, is 2.7m wide. Outer facing-stones are visible around some of the bank. The interior is levelled into the slope.

The second hut-circle (USN93 58, NH 6731 3430) lies to the NNE and measures 9.2m from ESE to WNW by 8.6m transversely within a faced, heather-covered bank 1.3m in thickness and 0.4m in height. The entrance may be on the ESE, and the interior is levelled into the slope.

The northernmost hut-circle (USN93 59, NH 6733 3439) measures 8.5m from NNE to SSW by 7m transversely within a bank spread to 1.2m in thickness and 0.3m in height. There is a slight depression in the bank to the SSW which may have been the entrance.

On the N side of a gully, some 180m SE of the southernmost hut-circle, there is a C-shaped, heather-covered, burnt mound (USN93 56, NH 6741 3411) which measures 9m from NW to SE by 6.4m transversely and 0.7m in height. The mound opens out towards the burn on the SW. There are two subsiduary mounds measuring 3.5m and 3m in diameter on the NW side of the main mound. Lifting a sod revealed cracked stone set in a matrix of black soil. Most of the area of the field-system recorded previously has been afforested, but there are about 10 small cairns measuring up to 5m in diameter and 0.4m in height in a strip immediately to the E of the forestry track.

(USN93 56-59).

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 3 December 1992.