Allt Coire A' Chonnaidh

NN63NW 22 62670 38859.

Centred NN 627388: 'Creag Dhubh'. A group of c.25 shielings on the E side of Allt Coire a Chonnaidh. Ten are circular, averaging 4.0m in diameter, while the remainder are rectangular, some with rounded ends, measuring 8.0 x 4.0m, surviving as turf-covered stone walls 0.5m high.

Visited by OS (JP) 20 September 1969

No change to previous field report.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (JRL) 13 December 1978

There are at least forty eight shieling-huts and four small enclosures in an area measuring about 300m from N to S by 200m transversely to either side of the Allt Coire a' Chonnaidh, and to the W of the cliffs of Creag Dhubh. Several huts have been reduced to fragmentary footings or turf mounds (some of which are overlain by later structures) but thirty-six are sufficiently well preserved to permit measurement of their interiors, and most of these can be divided into three classes on the basis of their construction. In the first class there are seventeen roughly rectangular huts with an internal stone facing encased within an outer shell or embankment of turf. With one exception (BL00 167, which measures only 1.9m by 1.3m internally) they measure internally from 3.7m to 6.2m in length and 1.6m to 2.2m in breadth, and their walls reach up to 1.1m in height. Seven of them (BL00 177, 172-4, 179 and 183) have turf mounds outside their entrances, probably accumulations of midden material. Inside, four huts (BL00 169, 174-5) have an edge set slab to one side of the entrance, probably the backstone of a hearth, and nine (BL00 165, 168, 170, 172, 174-5, 177-8, 183) have one or more aumbries set into their walls. The second class comprises four huts built entirely of stone. They are similar in size to the turf-embanked type, three of them (BL00166, 180-1) measuring from 4m to 6m in length and from 1.7m to 2m in breadth within walls up to 1m high, while the fourth is much smaller, measuring 2m by 1.5m (BL00 162). One hut (BL00 181) has an edge-set slab just inside its entrance, similar to those found in four of the turf-embanked huts. The third class of hut comprises nine turf-walled structures. They are much smaller than the other huts, measuring internally from 1m to 3m in length and from 1m to 1.9m in breadth, with one exception (BL00 185), which measures 4.2m by 1.9m, and most of them are roughly rectangular, though at least three appear to have been circular (BL00 182, 184, 458). These huts lack the embellishments often found associated with the other two types, such as middens, fireplaces and aumbries.

Amongst the huts there are at least six small enclosures. Two of these are small pens built within an earlier hut, but most are freestanding structures, the largest being that at the S edge of the group (NN 62621 38658), which measures about 7m by 6m.

(BL00 159-87, 455-60)

Visited by RCAHMS (MFTR and PJD) 2 May 2000