Burn Of Culhay, 'pit Dwellings'

NJ51NW 8 5374 1894

See also NJ51NW 17.

(NJ 5374 1894) Earth houses (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map, (1959)

The name applies to the site of eight ancient dwellings or Picts habitations the foundations of which were discovered a short time ago.

Name Book 1866.

No trace in a cultivated field.

Visited by OS (RL) 10 September 1968.

(Name cited as Old Strathlunach). The location indicated falls in an area of dry heathland at an altitude of about 270m OD.

NMRS, MS/712/50.

(Re-classified as 'Souterrains'; Quarry-pits (possible)'. The first mention of these alleged souterrains appears to be in a publication entitled 'Guide to Donside', which is quoted in the Ordnance Survey Name Book. The eight structures are described as being 'circular in form, and measure about three yards and a half (3.2m), one or two a little more'. It is clear from the description of the structures that they were not souterrains, and it is possible that they were no more than old quarry-pits. The precise location of the structures is not recorded, but the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Aberdeenshire, 1869, sheet lii) places the annotation to the NE of the Burn of Culhay some 600m NNW of Old Strathlunach farmsteading (NJ51NW 37). By then the ground in which the structures lay had been taken into arable cultivation, although it had yet to be enclosed, and the surface remains of the structures had presumably been destroyed.

Subsequently, at the end of the 19th century and apparently without the advantage of any additional information, the OS marked the site of the Erd Houses on the 2nd edition of the map with a cross placed on the opposite, SW, bank of the Burn of Culhay. This map also supplies the information 'Flint Arrowheads found hereabouts' (NJ51NW 17), and it is possible that the site of the souterrains has been conflated with the findspot of the arrowheads. Both areas are now improved and were under crop on the date of visit.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS), 21 July 1998.

Ordnance Survey Name Book.