Buntait

NH33SE 1.01 3971 3143

Part of a settlement of 13 stone-walled huts (A - N) and a contemporary field system. The interior of each hut is circular. The entrances, where visible, are in the SE. Huts C - L, and part of the field system, are mutilated by forestry ploughing.

'C', set into a NW-facing slope, is c. 13.0m in diameter within a wall spread to c. 3.0m all round. The entrance is ill-defined. A clearance heap overlies the wall in the S.

'D' is c. 8.0m in diameter within a wall spread to 3.0m widening to c. 3.5m where it is built up in the NW. The position of the entrance is not apparent. A clearance heap lies against the S arc.

'E', contiguous with 'D', is c. 8.0m in diameter within a wall spread to c. 4.0m widening to c. 7.5m at the mutilated clubbed entrance. There is no trace of an inter- connectng passage between the huts.

'F', approximately 9.0m in internal diameter, has been ploughed through, and no details are apparent.

'G' is c. 8.0m in diameter, within a wall spread to c. 3.0m widening to c. 4.5m at the entrance which is mutilated by ploughing.

'H' is c. 10.0m in diameter within a wall spread to c.5.5m expanding to c. 8.0m at the clubbed entrance.

'J' is c. 12.5m in diameter within a wall spread to c. 4.0m all round. A clearance heap lies against the wall to the SW of the mutilated entrance.

'K', contiguous with 'J', is c. 5.5m in diameter within a wall spread to c. 3.0m all round. The position of the entrance cannot be seen, and there is no trace of an interconnecting passage between the huts.

'L', set into a W-facing slope, is c. 6.0m in diameter within a wall spread to c. 2.5m all round. The entrance is denuded.

Visited by OS (NKB) 5 October 1970.

There are nine hut-circles scattered through a conifer plantation about 600m NE of Upperton Farm. All the hut-circles were recorded by the OS (C to L), and most of them lie in clearings and are free of trees. The hut-circles range in size from 6m to 13.7m in diameter within stony banks from 2m to 4.5m in thickness and 0.3m to 0.7m in height. All but three have entrances on the SE and these three are entered from the SW (URQ97 414, 419, 421). Two are built adjacent to one another, the western measuring 12.7m in internal diameter and the eastern 6m (URQ97 418 and 419). The smaller one also has a plough-furrow cut through it from NE to SW.

(URQ97 414-423)

Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 4 September 1997

Nine hut-circles, in two small groups corresponding to the hut-circles described by the RCAHMS (1997), were noted during a pre-afforestation survey by Wordsworth Archaeological Services.

The E group of five hut-circles lie within an extensive area of field clearance cairns (NMRS MS 2007 no.16) covering c.3.5 hectares and are bounded on the W by a dyke following an irregular course between NH 3971 3144 and NH 3985 3158. The W group of hut-circles are associated with an extensive area of small cairns stretching either side of a forestry track.

Information from J Wordsworth 6 December 1999

NMRS MS 2007 nos.11-17, 22-4