Corr

Site visits, field survey, description plans & photographs.

A hut circle is situated in rough grazing and heather on a gently sloping terrace on the SE side of Ben-a-cheilt and beside it are two smaller circular buildings and three stone-based peat-covered mounds. The group lies at c170m OD and may represent the re-use of an earlier site as a shieling ground.

The hut circle (ND 20232 36344) measures 5.5m - 5.7m in internal diameter, within low stone walls c2m wide. A very large stone measuring 2.6m long x 1.8m wide x 1.8m high is set within the W wall and forms a raised, flat surface in the interior of the hut, with a flat stone setting below it. The entrance faces SE and is defined by two triangular orthostats (1m high x 0.9m at the base). One stone has toppled and is lying across the entrance, covered with heather and turf. The upright entrance stone has a probable geological feature at the tip - two holes approximately 2cm in diameter – the significant use of this stone may be related to a similar stone 2km distant, which has an associated folk-story connected to “The Stone With Eyes”.

Immediately E of the hut circle, at ND 20229 36344, is a small circular feature with stone foundations, measuring 4m in external diameter over walls 0.6m thick. There is a quantity of tumbled stone both inside and out, overgrown with turf and heather. This feature is probably a shieling hut, associated with the farming practice of moving livestock to higher ground during summer months, but it has also been suggested that it may have been a shooting butt.

Immediately W of the hut circle, at ND 20234 36337, is a second smaller circular structure, similar to the possible shieling hut just described.

Close by, there are three stone-based peat covered mounds at ND 20238 36363, ND 20248 36372 and ND 20257 36365.

Information from SRP Ben-a-cheilt.