Allt A' Choire Chireinich

NN63NE 25 65315 39908.

Centred NN 6535 3990. A group of about twelve rectangular shieling bothies situated alongside the headwaters of the Allt a' Choire Chireinich. They are stone-built, averaging 7.0m by 4.0m, and similar

to those at NN 6603 3945 (see NN63NE 23).

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (BS) 7 December 1978

NN 65315 39908. There are at least twenty-seven shieling-huts, three enclosures and three possible peat stack stances spread across open moorland to the E of the Allt a' Choire Chireinich, in an area measuring about 380m from N to S by 220m transversely. Most of the structures are disposed along the banks of two unnamed burns, tributaries of the Allt a' Choire Chireinich, which in places have cut deep gullies, especially where they drop through the edge of a glacial terrace.

Most of the huts can be divided into two classes on the basis of their construction. The first class comprises eleven rectangular huts whose walls have an internal stone facing encased within an outer shell or embankment of turf. They measure internally from 4.1m to 6.2m in length and from 1.6m to 2.1m in breadth, and their walls stand up to 1m in height. Five of them (BL00 223-4, 230, 245, 249) have low turf mounds, possibly middens, outside their entrances; three (BL00 236, 249, 254) have an edge-set slab just inside the entrance, probably the backstone of a hearth; and five (BL00 234, 236, 247, 249, 254) have aumbries set into their walls. One hut (BL00 245) is divided into two compartments, and within the SW compartment there is a row of paving slabs, 0.55m broad, against the NW wall. The second class of hut comprises nine structures built of turf. They measure from 1.6m to 4.4m in length and from 1.3m to 2m in breadth within walls up to 0.5m in height. One of them (BL00 204) has a partition dividing the interior into two compartments and another (BL00 219) has part of a turf-stripping halo around it.

The remaining seven huts have walls reduced to turf-grown banks of turf and stone. Some of them may be poorly preserved examples of the turf-embanked class, including one hut (BL00 256), which has an edge-set slab next to the entrance, similar to those noted above.

Two of the enclosures are oval on plan. One of them is situated to the NE of the huts at NN 6545 4006 (BL00 1893) and measures 6.4m by 5.3m within a turf bank 0.6m in height. The other stands on a terrace close to the centre of the group at NN 6531 3990 (BL00 1894); it measures 7.9m by 7.3m within a stony bank 0.5m in height. The third enclosure (BL00 229; NN 6534 4001) comprises little more than a subrectangular shelf, measuring 2.8m by 2m, cut into the bank of a burn.

Finally, the possible peat stack stances (BL00 221, 225, 227) comprise narrow enclosures, open at the NNW end, and measuring from 3.4m to 3.8m in length and from 1.4m to 1.6m in breadth within wall footings up to 0.5m in height. Although they are structurally similar to other peat stack stances in the surrounding area (for example NN64SE 14), their locations are not typical, as each has been constructed directly in front of a shieling-hut, rather than alongside a trackway.

(BL00 204, 216-36, 245-9, 253-6, 1893-4)

Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH, SDB) 3 May 2000