Rum, Orval
Deer Trap (Medieval)
Site Name Rum, Orval
Classification Deer Trap (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Rhum
Canmore ID 21940
Site Number NM39NW 56
NGR NM 32988 98688
NGR Description NM 32826 98710 to NM 32897 98858
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/21940
- Council Highland
- Parish Small Isles
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
There is a possible recess in the S corner of the enclosure, about 1.2m across and 1m high. A second possible recess is in the NW corner. The interior of the enclosure is filled with turf covered boulders. There are small cells outside the enclosure, 2m to the N and 6m to the NNE.
NMRS, MS/868/1.
Field Visit (June 1983)
Orval NM 329 986 NM39NW
What may be the remains of a deer-trap are situated at the foot of a scree-slope, 550m SW of the summit of Orval. It comprises a roughly oval enclosure (7.8m by 6m within a drystone wall up to 2.6m thick and 2m high) from which a more slightly built oblong enclosure (6.8m by 5.3m internally) runs upslope. A funnel-shaped area leading into the enclosures has been cleared from the screes above.
RCAHMS 1983, visited June 1983
(Love, 1980)
Field Visit (21 August 2011)
Descending to the foot of the scree slopes below the summit of Orval, there are the remains of a deer trap. It comprises an area of cleared ground defined by two walls of loose rubble that converge as they head downslope to the SE, funnelling firstly into an oblong enclosure and then dropping into an oval enclosure as the ground flattens out.
The upper enclosure is entered from the W, where the two walls pinch together to create a gap just over 1m wide. It measures 7.7m from NW to SE by 5.2m transversely within a wall defined by a vertical inner face and revetted with loose rubble spread up to 1.8m in thickness. The wall stands 1.7m in height on the NE, but has collapsed to about 1m in height on the SW. Within the enclosure, the ground falls steeply, dropping at least another 1m into the lower enclosure through a gap in the wall on the E.
The lower enclosure measures 7.5m from NE to SW by 6m transversely within a wall up to 2m in height internally, and is best preserved on the SW. Like the wall of the upper enclosure, it too has been built with a vertical inner face and, though stretches of outer face are still visible, especially on the NE, for the most part the inner face appears to be revetted with a band of rubble. As such, the wall varies in thickness from 1m on the NE to a maximum of 2.6m on the S where an ambry is visible. A hut has been inserted into the W corner of the enclosure, and a large slab may be the displaced lintel of the creep between its two compartments. A heather grown platform of loose stones and rubble may be the remains of another hut in the N.
Outside the enclosure and to the E, there are traces of at least three further huts amongst the scree and stone litter.
Recorded by RCAHMS (ARG, SDB) August 2011.
Measured Survey (21 August 2011)
RCAHMS surveyed the deer trap at Orval, Rum on 21 August 2011 with plane table and self-reducing alidade at a scale of 1:250. The plan was later used as the basis for an illustration published in 2016 at a scale of 1:500 (Hunter, fig. 5.18).
