Loch Ashie
Field System (Period Unassigned), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Loch Ashie
Classification Field System (Period Unassigned), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 13255
Site Number NH63SW 23
NGR NH 620 336
NGR Description Centred at NH 620 336
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/13255
- Council Highland
- Parish Dores
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Inverness
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH63SW 23 620 336.
(NH 6204 3369) Supposed Remains of Fort (NR)
OS 6"map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1905)
In the area centred NH 620 336 on the SE slopes of a ridge are two oval stone-walled huts and a field system. The difference in size and state of preservation of the two huts suggest that they are not contemporary. Hut 'A', at NH 6204 3369 is built up on the slope and measures c. 15.5m NW-SE by c. 13.5m between the centres of a wall spread to c. 3.5m on the NW side, widening to c. 4.5m at the clubbed entrance on the lower SE side, which is c. 1.2m wide inside, splaying to c. 2.4m outside.
Hut 'B', at NH 6210 3370 measures c. 12.5m NW-SE by c. 11.5m between the centres of a denuded wall barely visible on all but the SW side where it is spread to c. 2.0m. No entrance is apparent. Contiguous to the NW
side of this hut is an alleged chambered cairn (NH63SW 28).
The field system comprises stone clearance heaps, some of bare rubble stones (noted as cairns by the ONB [Ordnance Survey Name Book 1871] and Woodham [Information from A A Woodham to OS 9 August 1963]), field walls and lynchets, defining cultivation plots, c. 30.0m x c. 20.0m average size. Huts surveyed at 1:2500.
(Visited by OS (R D L) 3 September 1963)
Visited by OS (N K B) 3 Feburary 1970.
(Name: NH 6204 3360) Settlement & Field System (NR)
OS 25"map, (1973)
Hut 'A' has recently been ploughed through by the Forestry Commission, exposing an earthen "wall" content.
Visited by OS (A A) 29 May 1973.
Field Visit (19 August 1943)
Cairns etc, SW of Loch Ashie.
On the crest of the same ridge, SSW of the dun is a line of 9 small cairns, mostly about 20’ in diameter. But No.6 (from the N) at the highest point of the ridge is at least 25’ across. No 9 about 3/10 mile WNW of West Town farmhouse is also about 24-26ft in diameter. It is situated near the centre of a ring framed by a peat-covered bank interrupted by a gap at the ENE and defined externally by slabs which measures 42’ to 45’ in overall diameter. This ring certainly resembles a typical hut-circle and the small cairn seems to have been heaped within it and to be posterior to its use. A perfectly distinct hut-circle measuring 31’ overall is visible on a strip of level ground below the crest of the ridge E of cairn 9. The E flank of the ridge is traversed by several very ruinous enclosure baulks of stones, the last named hut-circle itself standing within an irregularly rectangular enclosure thus bounded. In cairn 2 there are traces of a built cist.
[NH63SW 32 and NH63SW 39]
On the next ridge to the NW and WNW of the fort [NH63SW 1] are numerous small cairns 12’—15’ in diameter, again on the E flank of the ridge near the 800’ contour. These seem to have been disturbed and dug into.
[NH63SW 23 and NH63SW 28 ?]
Further to the NW there is another group of similar small cairns on the small ridge on the E flank of the ridge that is followed by the high road from Inverfarigaig to Inverness, as noted on the OS map.
[NH63SW 44?]
Visited by RCAHMS (AG) 19 August 1943
Map ref: xix (‘Cairns’)
