Culter Waterhead

At the head of the south east branch of the Coulter Waterhead Reservoir and straddling the Back Burn just above its confluence with Berry Grain, there are three shieling huts and two enclosures. One hut on the east side of the fence measures 5m by 4m overall, the walls have been built with boulders, but there is no obvious entrance. Another lies 20m downslope and on the other side of the fence, it measures 3m by 2.5m internally and there is a clear entrance gap on the east side. The walls are about 1.5m thick.

Below the two huts there is an 18m length of boulder wall footings forming an arc of about 10m in diameter. Upslope from the huts there is an enclosure which is 24m long by about 8m wide, it forms half of a pear shape on the east side of the fence and is open on the west side where the ground drops down to the burn.

On the other side of the burn there is a rectangular scooped site which measures 6m long by 2.5m wide internally. The site has been cut into the hill face on the west, and probably using the quarried material to form a bank up to 1m high on the east side. There is no obvious access into the sunken area now formed.

Immediately above the sunken feature is a small sub rectangular enclosure which measures about 15m by 15m, The banks forming this enclosure are poorly preserved.

On the summit of a prominent natural gravel knoll, and east of the corrugated sheet sheep fold, there is a circular scooped area. It measures about 2.5m in internal diameter and is about 5m in diameter overall, the hollow is about 0.3m deep.

These features, although poorly preserved in some areas, appear represent the management of sheep involving the practice of transhumance. At least two of the stone structures will have been former shieling huts with the enclosures being used for activities such as milking the sheep. Surviving shielings are rare in South Lanarkshire, although there are numerous place names to indicate that such activities were common in former times. Shielings have recently been recorded in neighbouring Tweeddale along with the open ended turf and stone buchts, which are still found in significant numbers in Upper Clydesdale, the nearest being the three examples at Windgate House bastle in neighbouring Cowgill (valley).

Concrete sheep stell

On the west side of the Back Burn and adjacent the enclosures given above, there is a poured concrete sheepfold, now almost totally ruinous. The circular fold (given on OS maps) has been built on a levelled platform and is 8m in diameter. The walls were 0.15m thick and about 1m high. They were shuttered and have vertical steel bars as supports. A 6m length of off shoot walling was built at the entrance. This unusual stell was probably built at the same time as the reservoir. A small timber hut now sits on the site.

Visited by Tam Ward, Biggar Museum Trust as part of a continuation of the Clydesdale survey, 2001