Pitcarmick Burn

Centred at NO 0617 5614 is a settlement of three circular stone-walled huts and a contemporary field system marked by stone clearance heaps, lynchets and walls.

'A' is a 'Dalrulzion'-type hut 15.0m in diameter between the centres of a wall spread to about 2.0m. The central area is 10.0m in diameter. The entrance is in the S.

'B' is 11.5m in diameter between wall centres. The entrance in the S is blocked by a fallen slab.

'C' is 11.0m in diameter between wall centres. No entrance is evident. Heavy cover of peat and heather make more precise interpretation difficult, but a few inner facing slabs on edge in the SE suggest it may be a 'Dalrulzion'-type hut.

About 15.0m to the E of 'C' are the footings of a later L-shaped building and traces of contemporary walls. About 90.0m to the NE is a rectangular enclosure 13.0m x 13.0m, probably contemporary with this later building.

About 30.0m and 110.0m respectively to the NE of hut 'A' are two hollow pits each about 2.5m in diameter and 0.3m deep which may possibly be grain storage pits.

Extent of field system delineated on 6" sheet.

Huts surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (ISS) 22 November 1973

NO05NE 23 0617 5614.

A group of three hut-circles lies within an extensive field-system of small cairns and stony banks some 700m ESE of Pitcarmick Loch. The extent of the field-system is as is indicated on the OS 1:10,000 record map and it should be noted that within the area of the field-system there are numerous other structures including a Pitcarmick-type building (NO 05 NE 73) and several shieling huts (NO 05 NE 74-6, 78 and 90).

1. NO 0614 5617 (OS 'A') This double-walled hut-circle measures 10m in diameter within its inner wall (1m thick and 0.3m high) which has had an inner face of slabs set on edge but no discernible outer face.

The hut-circle measures 16.5m in overall diameter and the outer wall, which has an incomplete outer face of slabs set on edge but no visible inner face, is 1m thick and 0.3m high. The outwardly-splayed entrance lies on the SE, but on the NE there is what may be a deliberate gap in the inner face of the inner wall.

2. NO 0612 5616 (OS 'B') This double-walled hut-circle is situated about 20m SW of (1) and measures 8.9m in diameter within an inner wall (c. 1.3m thick and 0.3m high) which has a prominent inner face of slabs set on edge. On plan the wall is distinctly flattened on the SW, and the outwardly-splayed entrance (1.4m wide) on the SE is now partly blocked by a boulder which probably originally formed part of the inner face on the E side of the entrance. The hut measures 15.6m in overall diameter, the outer wall, which is 0.9m thick and 0.3m high, has several large outer facing-stones; on the NW the outer wall merges with a field-bank and much of the SW arc has been robbed.

3. NO 0623 5608 (OS 'C') This single-walled hut-circle is situated about 120m SE of (1 and 2) and lies on the opposite side of a burn gully. It measures 9.4m in diameter within a wall reduced to a stony bank 1.2m in thickness and 0.3m in height; its inner wall-face originally comprised a series of flat slabs set on edge, whilst the outer face is a mixture of slabs and large rounded boulders. The poorly-preserved entrance is situated on the S. Abutting the inner face of the wall on the NW there is a small structure measuring 3.6m NW-SE by 4.7m over stone wall-footings 0.5m thick and 0.1m high.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 14 October 1987.

RCAHMS 1990

Curious buildings

Two hundred years ago prehistoric burial mounds were thought by many to be the homes of fairy folk; groups of small piles of stones (cairns) created by farmers clearing land were considered to be evidence of great battles; and Iron Age forts were often wrongly presumed to be the work of the Romans. Today, our understanding of Scotland’s archaeology is very different. Much of this new understanding is based on programmes of extensive fieldwork followed by excavation, and the results of this work usually have a slow and gradual affect on the way we think about the past and interpret its remains. Every now and then, however, there is a huge discovery that both excites the profession, and radically changes how we must consider a particular topic.

One such discovery was made in the late 1980s by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). And it was a discovery about the Picts. Over the course of two years (1987-88) the RCAHMS archaeologists carefully observed and recorded thousands of structures on the moorland and in the glens of NE Perthshire (RCAHMS 1990). During this work they gradually became aware that amongst the many hundreds of buildings recorded there were about 48 of a type that was very different from any other structure they had encountered elsewhere in Scotland. At first, no-one had much idea about their date and purpose. These curious buildings were long, round-ended and were usually broader at one end. Many had partly sunken interiors and enclosures attached to them; all of them were reduced to little more than wall-footings. These building survive mainly because they are situated on poor quality marginal land that was generally beyond the limit of medieval and modern cultivation. It is a position they shared with the very different circular houses of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Having ruled out a prehistoric date for these strange buildings, the RCAHMS archaeologists were equally confident that they were not late-medieval or of more recent date. None of them were square-ended or contained partitions, and none could be shown to be contemporary with medieval cultivation remains. About half the buildings contained drains in their lower half, strongly suggesting that they were byre-dwellings -- houses designed to be occupied by a family and their animals. The enclosures attached to many of the buildings was another indication that animal husbandry was important to the builders.

Whilst the official publication of the survey (RCAHMS 1990) was rather vague about the possible date of these buildings, the archaeologists who undertook the fieldwork and who affectionately referred to them as ‘Picty Houses’, were more confident. To them, it seemed obvious that these structures must date to the late 1st millennium AD. In other words these buildings were most probably the remains of Pictish farmsteads. This was an important recognition because for the first time archaeologists could start discussing Pictish settlement based on the physical remains not just of individual sites but of sites within their contemporary landscapes. Discussion no longer needed to be dominated by the evidence of place-names and the distribution of carved stones.

Excavation

The confidence of the RCAHMS’ archaeologists’ identification of these structures as Pictish was borne out only a few years later when excavation was undertaken at Cultalonie on the Pitcarmick estate in 1993-5 by Glasgow University (Carver et al 2012). More recently similar results have been achieved at Lair in neighbouring Glenshee to the east (2012-16), as a result of an excavation commissioned by the Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust (http://www.glenshee-archaeology.co.uk).

These excavations have informed us that the inhabitants of the buildings so far examined lived in the second half of the 1st millennium (AD 500-1000) and were essentially stock farmers who raised sheep and cattle, and, if soil conditions allowed, probably cultivated a small area of crop. The walls of their dwellings were built largely of turf above a stone footing and their timber-framed roofs were probably covered with heather, turf or thatch – whatever material was at hand. If, at the end of its life, the organic matter and degraded turves (soil) from these buildings was spread as a fertiliser over cultivated ground, this would help explain why few of the buildings today are marked by anything more than low, grass-grown foundations.

The use of byre-dwellings – essentially animals sharing a sheltered living space with the family, has a long tradition in Scotland, lasting well into the 19th century in the NW. Such a building could keep animals safe in times of strife and sheltered in poor weather -- it was especially important to keep milking cows relatively warm in order ensure a good yield. Keeping animals indoors also provided the family with an important source of heat and it has even been said that the ammonia content of the animal urine helped to keep the house disinfected.

References

Carver, M, Barrett, J Downes, J and Hooper, J 2012 Pictish Byre-houses and their landscape: investigations 1993-95, Proc Soc Antiq Scot 124 (2012), 145-99.

RCAHMS 1990 North-East Perth: An Archaeological Landscape, HMSO.

John Sherriff - Operational Manager (Landscape Survey and Marine Section)