Accessibility

Font Size

100% 150% 200%

Background Colour

Default Contrast
Close Reset

Islay, An Sithean

Cairnfield (Bronze Age), Corn Drying Kiln (Post Medieval)(Possible), Field System (Bronze Age), Hut Circle(S) (Bronze Age), Rig And Furrow (Post Medieval)

Site Name Islay, An Sithean

Classification Cairnfield (Bronze Age), Corn Drying Kiln (Post Medieval)(Possible), Field System (Bronze Age), Hut Circle(S) (Bronze Age), Rig And Furrow (Post Medieval)

Canmore ID 37374

Site Number NR26NE 3

NGR NR 2505 6667

NGR Description Centred on 'G'

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

C14 Radiocarbon Dating

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/37374

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

Toggle Aerial | View on large map

Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Argyll And Bute
  • Parish Kilchoman
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Argyll And Bute
  • Former County Argyll

Archaeology Notes

NR26NE 3 250 665.

(Centred NR 251 665). A group of at least four or five possible hut circles or enclosures lies in the vicinity of An Sithean, the Fairy Knoll, (NR 2513 6650) at least three being on the S side of the road and at least one on the N. (Note the undescribed enclosures, published at NR 2502 6644, NR 2570 6658, NR 2525 6645 and NR 252 6658). All are overgrown with bracken, but there appear to be others nearby. They lie just below the ridge on gently sloping ground overlooking the loch and measures about 28ft to 30ft in diameter with walls 2ft to 3ft high composed mainly of stones which are easily lifted in one hand but with some boulders.

The entrances are invariably in the SW and in one case measured 10ft in width.

J Whittaker 1956; P Lerwin and F Celoria 1958; F Celoria 1959; T Pennant 1776.

With these round houses is associated a field system forming an extensive settlement. The field dykes are so arranged that the SE or E entrances to the houses open onto one field but are excluded from the next. Within the dykes towards the W are stack-like, vertical-sided clearance cairns. A tentative Celto-Viking origin is suggested, possibly persisting into the Medieval period. Masked by this later system, are more ruinous, more overgrown dykes, and, at one point, a simpler hut circle and small cairn are enclosed by an oval dyke, lost in marsh on the W. Two of the later houses have beside them at NR 252 667 and NR 253 665, bi-cellular, sub-rectangular founddations, possibly of stone houses. The latter measures 20ft across with a 4ft wide wall, which bifurates round the N to provide a 6ft wide annexe. Both house and annexe are entered from the E.

F Newall and H E Newall 1961.

Centred NR 250 665. A multi-phase settlement is situated on a gentle W facing slope in open moorland. It comprises 7 hut circles and an extensive system of field banks lying between 30m and 45m OD.

NR 2525 6661. 'A' Scooped into a small knoll this hut is 8.0m internal diameter with a dished featureless interior. The substantial turf covered walling, 2.0m in maximum width is 1.1m high internally and externally is visible as a 0.2m high rim. Several inner facing stones are visible and there is a 1.5m wide entrance in the SE. This is guarded at a distance of 3.0m by a curving turf-covered stone bank 5.0m long 2.0m wide and 0.3m high. Nearby to the SE are the footings of two sub-oval structures 4.0m long by 2.5m. The turf-covered stone walls with some inner facing stones evident are 0.3m high. They appear contemporanous with the hut but their purpose is not clear.

NR 2524 6647. 'B'. Similar to 'A', this hut is situated on a level shelf and measures 10.8m in overall diameter. The substantial turf covered walling spread to 3.5m is 1.1m high with some facing stones evident. There is a 1.2m wide orthostated entrance in the SE. A turf-covered stone bank 2.5m wide joins the hut in the NW and curves away to the E before fading in the peat.

NR 2522 6639. 'C'. This poorly preserved hut circle levelled into the gentle slope is 13.0m overall diameter. The mutilated turf covered wall 3.0m in width and 0.6m high encloses an uneven featureless interior. There is a 1.5m wide orthostated entrance in the SE. Turf-covered stone banks 2.5m wide and 0.5m high join the hut and lead away to the SW and NE respectively for distances of approximately 30.0m before

disappearing in the peat.

NR 2511 6652. 'D'. Levelled into a small knoll this hut is 13.5m in overall diameter. The substantial turf covered walling with some inner facing stones visible is 3.0m wide and 1.1m high and encloses a dished featureless interior. There is a 1.8m wide partly orthostated entrance in the SE. A turf covered stone field bank 3.0m wide and 0.5m high skirts the hut at a distance of 2.0m on the W side and leads away to the NW and SW for short distances before fading into the peat.

NR 2508 6660. 'E'. This hut levelled into the gentle slope is 15.0m in overall diameter. The substantial turf covered walling spread to 3.5m in width is 1.2m high. Fragmentary inner and outer facing on the N side give a wall width of 2.8m and there is a 2.5m wide entrance gap in the SE. A turf covered linear clearance bank 2.5m wide and 0.6m high joins the hut in the NE and leads away to the N before fading in the peat. An oval stony turf covered mound 5.0m by 3.0m and 0.5m high abutts the hut on the W side; this is possibly ?later field clearance but this is not clear.

NR 2499 6646. 'F'. A peat and heather covered hut circle levelled into the slope 12.0m in overall diameter. The stone bank with some facing stones visible is spread to 2.5m in width and 0.7m high. There is a 1.5m wide entrance in the SE at the change of slope. What appears to be an internal dividing bank and another 'entrance' in the S is probably fortuitous disturbance.

NR 2495 6647. 'G'. This hut similar to but less sub tantial than 'F' is 11.5m in overall diameter. The bank with some stone evident is spread to 2.5m and is 0.5m high on downhill side and 0.3m high elsewhere. A vague gap in the SE at change of slope is probably the entrance. An apparently contemporaneous peat and heather covered bank 2.5m wide and 0.3m high runs from E to W at a distance of 20.0m to the N of the hut then fades in the peat. Near to the hut is an oval turf covered stony mound, probably clearance but not clearly contemporaneous with the hut.

The area surrounding the huts and further to the N and W extending to approximately 14.0ha has many field banks evident. These are mainly fragmented but immediately NW of hut 'E' is a field measuring 60.0m by 45.0m. In the field are 7 turf and heather covered clearance heaps averaging 3.5m in sub-circular diameter and 1.1m high, at least one has a living rock base. Further to the NW is a developed system of field banks, mainly clearance heaped up to form a boundary. There are also two large (averaging 13.0m by 8.0m) clearance heaps at NR 2498 6689 and NR 2492 6671.

There are three different types of field bank: (a) the low peat covered boulder bank as near huts 'F' and 'G'; (b) the more substantial bank as the one skirting hut 'D' and joining huts 'B' and 'C'; (c) the sinuous linear clearance banks to the NW of the settlement area.

The huts 'F' and 'G' are similar, being of less substantial build to the others and probably represent a different phases but no where can their exact relationship be seen.

Huts surveyed at 1:10 000.

Visited by OS (T R G) 7 May 1978.

The archive from the 1981 excavation at An Sithean has been catalogued. It consists of photographic material, drawings and manuscripts.

Historic Scotland Archive Project (FO) 1996

Activities

Measured Survey (1979 - 1981)

RCAHMS surveyed the hut-circles, field system and cairns at An Sithean between 1979 and 1981. Surveys included: a 1:1000 plan of the site, a 1:400 plan of hut-circle A and enclosure, and 1:200 plans of hut-circles B, C, D, E, F, G and H. The plans were redrawn in ink and published at reduced scales (RCAHMS 1984, figs. 125 and 126A-H).

Field Visit (November 1981)

NR 250 665. About 1km SE of Camduncan the public road B8017 crosses a complex of hut-circles, field-banks and cairns overlain arid partly destroyed by the remains of later agriculture; they are spread over an area of heather moorland, marsh and rough pasture some 14 ha in extent, which falls gently westwards to Loch Gorm in a series of natural terraces. In 1981, when the ditches bordering the road were mechanically recut, the opportunity was taken by Mr J W Barber, of the Central Excavation Unit of Scottish Development Department, to examine the sections of field-banks thus exposed and to cut others in order to seek evidence for the relationship and date of the various elements of the complex. The following description incorporates a summary of the results of these excavations.'

All eight hut-circles (A-H) appear as roughly circular grass- or heather-covered banks of earth and stones which,

except in the case ofA, show evidence of having had a built stone face on both sides. Surface indications suggest that A and G may differ, either in function or date, from the others, which are more substantial. Hut-circle A (NR249 664) measures 7.5m by 8.0m within a bank up to 0.3m in height and 2m in average thickness; the position of the entrance is uncertain but may have been on the NW, where there is noticeably less wall-debris. A roughly circular grass-covered stony mound immediately to the sw appears to be of relatively recent date. Hut-circle B (NR249 664) measures about 7m by 8m within a wall standing up to 0.95m in height externally and varying from 1.8m to 2.8m in thickness, with the entrance on the SE. The interior is roughly bisected by a wall to make two animal-pens of no great age. Hut-circle C (NR 251 664), the most prominent, stands on a small hillock and measures 8m in diameter within a wall which is up to 1.5m high above the interior and 4m thick near the entrance on the ESE. Several inner and outer facing-stones survive, and on each side of the entrance the wall turns outwards for a short distance. The NW and SW arcs of the wall are accompanied by curving external annexes, the one on the SW now very poorly preserved; their inner ends appear to merge in an indeterminate mass of earth and stones, but their outer ends are open. A field-bank, which merges with the annexe wall on the ssw and which diverges from it sharply on the N to run down towards the road, has two small recent rectangular pens attached to its W side.

Hut-circle D (NR252 663) has a diameter of 7.75m within a wall measuring up to 0.7m in height and 3m in average thickness, with several stretches of inner and outer facing-stones still position. The entrance, about 1.5m wide, is on the ESE and is flanked on the S by a low curving bank. The remains of what are probably recent sheep-pens occupy the interior and encroach on the wall.

Hut-circle E (NR252 664) measures 5.3m in diameter within a wall 2.25m thick and 0.9m high externally; the entrance, on the SE, measures1m in width at the inner end and 1.2m at the outer. On the NW there is an open-ended annexe bounded by a low curving wall. A low penannular stony bank (F, NR250 664) appears to be a much damaged hut-circle measuring 8.4m by 9.0m within a wall 3m thick and up to 1m high. The entrance probably lies within the broad gap on the SE, and stones cleared from the adjacent fields obscure much of the wall, while within the interior there are traces of a subrectangular sheep-pen. A field-bank runs from the but-wall towards the S and another towards the N. Hut-circle G (NR250 666) appears for the most part as a low stony mound about 8m by 9.5m and not more than 0.4m high. The outline of the wall has been obscured by the dumping of field-cleared stones but the entrance may

have faced S, and a spread of stony debris on the W edge of the mound may mark the remains of an external curving annexe. Hut-circle H (NR 252 665) is built on the top of a slight hillock and measures 5m by 6m within a heavily robbed wall standing 1m high internally. The entrance, on the E, is flanked on the S by a curving length of wall. On the NW arc

there is an open-ended external annexe bounded by a wall which springs from the hut-wall on the W. About 15m to the SE there are the remains of two small structures; their purpose is not clear, but they may be later sheep-pens similar to those already mentioned within the interior of some of the other hut-circles.

Associated with the hut-circles there is a series of banks representing the remnant of what must originally have been a more extensive field-system; in the area NW of the road and S of a modern drystone wall the older remains have been largely obliterated by rig-and-furrow cultivation which covers an area of about 1.8 ha. The earlier field-boundaries can, in general, be distinguished from the more substantial banks associated with the rig-and-furrow; the former appear as low stony peatf- grass- or heather-covered banks sometimes defined by projecting upright stones, and they tend to run in gentle curves making use of the forward edges of natural terraces. The bank that is cut by the road immediately W of hut-circle B is about 2m thick and only 0.15m high above present ground-level. In the area east of hut-circle B, banks define two fields or enclosures of subrectangular and trapezoidal plan, measuring about 0.3 ha and 0.5ha in size respectively; gaps in the banks, one at the NE angle of the larger field and the other at the w angle of the smaller, may be original entrances. On the N side of the road the earlier field-banks are, in general, peripheral to the banks associated with rig-and-furrow, and in the area N of the modern drystone wall only a few traces remain visible, including a curvilinear enclosure about 0.12ha in area. Accompanying the hut-circles and field-banks there is a scatter of at least fifteen small heather-covered clearance-cairns which, because of the layer of peat that almost covers them, appear as low stony mounds measuring, on average, 2m in diameter and 0.3m in height.

The banks that bound or divide the areas of rig-and-furrow cultivation have been built in a series of short straight lengths; like the earlier examples just described, they tend to follow the forward edges of natural terraces that divide different levels of rig-and-turrow, and some of them have served as dumping-places for field-clearance. Some of the stones cleared from rig-and-furrow cultivation have been formed into the cairns measuring up to 15m by 10m that adjoin such plots but other examples of these larger cairns may have originated in the earlier period, and the large accumulation of stones (I) may conceal the remains of a ninth hut-circle similar to those already described. Attached to the later field-banks there are three small subrectangular structures (J, K and L) of which one, K, may be a corn-drying kiln.

The sections cut through the field-banks and the walls of hut-circles C and E showed that human activity on the site could be divided into at least four periods. The evidence for the earliest period was derived from pollen samples sealed under the wall of hut-circle E and beneath some of the field-banks; this indicated that cereal-cultivation was already

taking place before any of these features had been constructed. In the second period the hut-circles and the field-banks apparently associated with them were built, and cereal-cultivation was again practised; a terminus post quern for this phase is provided by a single radiocarbon determination of 975 be+60 (GU-1474) produced from a sample of cereal pollens recovered from immediately beneath marked by a growth of peat over the whole site, but structural alterations to the walls of hut-circles C and E. and to some of the field-banks, suggest a third period of activity, albeit on a much-reduced scale. There was, however, no evidence of cereal-cultivation during this phase, which is tentatively assigned to the Iron Age or later. The fourth period saw the introduction of rig-and-furrow cultivation probably in post-medieval times.

Visited November 1981

RCAHMS 1984

Publication Account (1984)

The survey of the settlement and field-systems at An Sithean, Islay, was followed by a programme of soil sampling. Pollen analysis indicated cultivation on the site prior to, and contemporary with, the hut circles and field banks, whose construction probably took place no tlong after 975+60 be (GU-1474) (c 1220 BC). Although some field banks were refurbished after peat growth had begun, possibly in the Iron Age, this was not accompanied by arable farming. The central area of the site was reused for cereal cultivation in the post-medieval period. A model for the use of podzolized soils and the onset of peat growth as chronological indicators was tested with partial success.

Barber and Brown 1984

References

MyCanmore Image Contributions


Contribute an Image

MyCanmore Text Contributions