Allt A' Mhoirneas

NN53NE 4 59825 38545.

In the area centred on NN 598 385, are the remains of at least twenty eight shielings, on a slight plateau bisected by a stream. Apparently of two phases, the majority are of the earlier oval or circular type

and survive as turf-covered, banked walls averaging 0.5m high enclosing an area 4.0m x 1.5m. The later type are generally rectangular measuring c.6.0m x 2.0m internally with walls c.0.5m high.

Visible on RAF AP's (541/A/478: 3207).

Visited by OS (RD) 11 September 1969

This group of structures, comprising at least twenty-five shieling-huts, a turf building and two small enclosures, is situated on the hillside above the W bank of the Allt a' Mhoirneas, in an area measuring about 200m by 75m. Most of the structures are disposed across a grassy terrace, but others stand on low knolls in more broken ground to the S.

Many of the huts are poorly preserved, reduced to low turf mounds measuring up to 7.4m in length by 5m in breadth, their interiors indicated by shallow depressions. Fifteen huts, however, are in better condition. They measure from 1.5m to 5.9m in length and from 1.4m to 2m in breadth within walls up to 1.1m in height. Two type of construction can be identified: at least six huts have rubble walls wholly or partly encased in an outer shell or embankment of turf, while seven appear to be built almost entirely of turf (the remaining two are heavily overgrown, and may be of either type). The turf-embanked huts tend to be larger than those with turf walls (though the distinction is not as clear as in other shieling groups in the area, e.g. NN53NE 2), and two of them (BL00 578, 582) appear to have had stone gables, now reduced to heaps of rubble at each end. Six huts (four of them of turf-embanked type) have turf banks, possibly representing accumulations of midden material, extending from either side of the entrance, four huts have one or more stone aumbries set into their walls and one hut (BL00 590) has an edge set slab to one side of the doorway, probably the backstone of a hearth.

The building (BL00 572) stands amongst the huts, towards the N end of the group. It has bowed sides and rounded ends, and measures 7.3m from E to W by 3.5m transversely within turf walls 0.9m high and spread to 2.2m in thickness. There is an entrance in the N side, a gap in the E end that may represent a second entrance, and it has a scooped interior. The substantial proportions of this structure distinguish it from the surrounding huts, and its dimensions are comparable to those of oval buildings above Kiltyrie (NN63NW 100 and NN63NW 106 ), recently excavated and shown to be of medieval date.

(BL00 567-588, 590-595)

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 3 October 2000 and (SDB) 8 June 2005