Pitcarmick Burn

NO05NE 29 0682 5605.

Centred at NO 0682 5605 is an area of stone clearance heaps of the kind usually associated with hut circles.

In this area also are the footings of one or two rectangular buildings and contemporary field walls.

Area delineated on 6" sheet.

Visited by OS (ISS) 27 November 1973

NO05NE 29 0682 5605.

At least four, and probably five, hut-circles are situated within a small field-system which extends along a ridge on the S side of the valley of the Pitcarmick Burn (NO 065 559 - NO 069 560).

The surrounding field-system is multiperiod, comprising a scatter of about fifty small cairns, two large enclosures and two types of cultivation ridge. The most obvious features are the banks of the two enclosures, which are probably of relatively recent date since at one point they run up to opposite corners of a later building. Within both enclosures there are traces of broad cultivation ridges and it is probable that these two elements are contemporary.

The cairn appears to pre-date the cultivation ridges and extend beyond the N side of the W enclosure. Immediately beyond the SW end of the W enclosure there are traces of another area of ridged cultivation aligned NNW and SSE, however, the ridges are only 0.9m-1m broad and are only visible when the thin layer of surface peat has been burnt off. The longest of the ridges is 16m long and runs up to an irregular scatter of cleared stones which fringes a shallow boggy depression.

1. NO 0661 5593 The westernmost of the hut-circles measures about 8.8m in diameter within a wall reduced to a stony bank up to 1.5m in thickness by 0.3m in height. The wall has been almost totally removed by cultivation on the N but four outer facing-stones are visible on the SW. The entrance is on the S and there is a large boulder lying on the E terminal of the bank. The interior is slightly domed, suggesting the presence of a ring-ditch immediately within the bank.

2. NO 0663 5594 This hut-circle lies immediately E of (1) and has been almost obliterated by cultivation. It measures about 5.8m in internal diameter, but its wall has been reduced to a ragged band of stones 1.3m in maximum thickness and there is a large gap on the NW. The entrance is on the S.

3. NO 0671 5596 This hut-circle lies a further 70m to the ENE and is overlain on the ESE by the westernmost of a group of later buildings (NO05NE 77). Its wall has been reduced to little more than a stony swelling, about 3m thick and no more than 0.2m high, enclosing an area 9m in diameter. The entrance is on the S.

4. NO 0673 5596 Between (3) and (5), which lies 15m to the ENE, there is a possible hut-circle overlain by a later building. All that remains of the hut-circle is the entrance, which is on the SSE, with short arcs of mutilated wall to either side. The hut-circle probably had an internal diameter of about 10m and to the W of the entrance the wall is at least 2.3m in thickness and faced with massive slabs up to 1.2m in length by 0.5m in height; two of the outer facing stones are still in situ, but another six have collapsed outwards, and one inner facing stone is also visible. To the E of the entrance there are five recumbent slabs, one a massive stone 1.8m in length, 1m in breadth and 0.5m in thickness. The entrance is deeply splayed.

5. NO 0674 5597 The fifth hut-circle has been reduced to little more that a penannular swelling with an internal diameter of about 8m. There is a wide gap on the SSE, flanked by two mounds of stones. An upright slab protruding from the W mound leans inwards, and of two protruding from the E mound, one leans inwards and the other outwards. These slabs are undoubtedly facing stones, as may be a row of slabs flush with the ground on the W side of the hut-circle.

Visited by RCAHMS (SPH) 27 October 1988.

RCAHMS 1990