Pitcarmick Loch

NO05NE 71 0560 5692.

A series of shieling-huts and buildings have been identified in three groups in a saddle to the NE of Pitcarmick Loch. On the W side of the saddle, 460m NE of the Loch, there are seven dispersed shieling- huts and an enclosure.

1. NO 0558 5692 This rectangular hut measures 6.1m N-S by 4.2m over the wasted remains of wall-footings.

2. NO 0558 5694 This subrectangular building measures c.8m N-S by 5.6m over a stony bank up to 1m in thickness and 0.1m in height; a probable entrance is situated on the E side. Partly underlying the S end of the hut there is an enclosure measuring 19m E-W by 7.5m within a bank up to 1.3m in thickness and 0.3m in height. A cross-wall cuts obliquely across the interior from NE to SW and there is no indication of an entrance. The enclosure is oddly-placed in that it lies on the break of slope so that its W end is somewhat higher than its E end.

3. NO 0559 5696 This small hut backs on to the E side of a small cairn and measures 5.4m E-W by 4.9m over rubble wall-footings 1.1m in thickness and 0.3m in height. The entrance is probably at the E end and there is a small pen, measuring 2.9m E-W by 1.8m overall attached to the N side.

4. NO 0561 5697 This sub-rectangular hut measures 5.2m N-S by 3m over wasted wall-footings 0.9m in thickness and 0.1m in height; there is no apparent entrance.

5. NO 0560 5698 The wasted remains of this small hut measure 5m N-S by c.3.6m over walls reduced to a slight bank 0.1m in height and up to 1.2m in thickness; the entrance is not visible.

6. NO 0560 5699 Like (3), this hut backs on to the E side of a small cairn. It measures 3.9m square over wall-footings 0.7m in thickness and 0.2m in height; the entrance is at the E end of the N side.

7. NO 0560 5695 The hut measures 7.8m N-S by 4.4m over a low bank 0.8m in thickness and barely 0.1m in height. The entrance is not visible. A further three shieling-huts are situated on the E side of the saddle 600m NE of the Loch.

8. NO 0568 5696 This hut measures 6.3m N-S by 4.2m over rubble wall-footings up to 0.6m in thickness and 0.1m in height; no entrance is visible.

9. NO 0567 5693 About 36m WSW of (7) there is a hut which measures 7m NW-SE by 4.5m over walls reduced to low stony banks 1m in thickness and 0.2m in height. No entrance is visible and a small outshot or pen lies adjacent to the SW side.

10. NO 0565 5691 This hut measures 6m NE-SW by 4m over a low rubble bank c.1m in thickness and 0.2m in height; no entrance is visible. Situated on the SW side of the saddle there are four shieling-huts; two are larger, and possibly earlier, while the other two, one of which appears to overlie an earlier hut, are better preserved.

11. NO 0551 5688 This hut measures 7.9m ENE-WSW by 3.8m over turf-covered wall-footings 0.9m in thickness and 0.2m in height; no entrance is visible.

12. NO 0553 5689 Situated 11m ENE of (11) there are the rubble footings of a sub-rectangular building measuring 8.1m ENE-WSW by 5.3m over walls 1.3m in thickness and 0.2m in height. Again no entrance is visible.

13. NO 0553 5688 About 8m E of (11), with an entrance in its E end, this hut measures 5m ENE-WSW by 4.2m over walls 1.1m in thickness and 0.3m in height. This building appears to overlie the SW corner of (12).

14. NO 0553 5687 Situated 11.8m SE of (11) there is a fourth hut, which measures 7.3m ENE-WSW by 4.2m over a wall 0.9m in thickness and 0.3m in height. The entrance is probably at the W end of the SE side, and the area between (13) and (14) has been enclosed by two parallel banks which link the ends of both huts.

15. NO 0558 5690 There is also an irregularly-shaped enclosure situated in the saddle. It is defined by a stony bank measuring up to 1.7m in thickness and 0.3m in height, but is ill-defined on the S side and measures about 9.2m N-S by 17m internally. The enclosure may incorporate a robbed hut-circle, its N side preserved in the curving N side of the enclosure and its SW arc as a slight stony spread within the interior. A dip in ground level on the SE may indicate the position of the hut-circle entrance, as well as an entrance to the later enclosure. At the E end of the enclosure is an apse-shaped projection measuring 3.3m E-W by 3.1m internally; this may have resulted from the partial re-use of an earlier sub-rectangular structure. Immediately S of the enclosure there is what may be a building but it is too robbed and damaged by cultivation to be certainly identified. Traces of cultivation furrows are visible on the floor of the saddle around the enclosure.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 30 September; 14 October 1987; 22 June 1988. RCAHMS 1990