Allt Bhreaig
Shieling(S) (Post Medieval)
Site Name Allt Bhreaig
Classification Shieling(S) (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 4938
Site Number NC45SE 1
NGR NC 4516 5371
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/4938
- Council Highland
- Parish Durness
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC45SE 1 4516 5371.
NC 4516 5371. Two possible hut circles lie in a clump of bracken, and half-hidden under turf, among collections of stones which show no clear pattern. One setting at the N end suggests an almost obliterated hut circle, 27ft in external diameter, whose SW quadrant is missing. Adjacent to it on the S is another hut, 29ft in external diameter, which shows more definite evidence of double-faced walling. At NC 4514 5364 is an oval enclosure, measuring 41ft N-S by 45ft E-W externally, which is of the same construction as the hut circles.
Information contained in letter and field notes from K Reid 25 September 1978.
Of the two "possible hut circles" described by Reid, that at NC 4508 5357 is almost certainly a complex of three or four adjoining shielings of turf and stone, and the other at NC 4514 5361 comprises two contiguous but incomplete settings of stones, which are flush with the ground and were probably circular. They too may be shielings or the remains of associated stock pounds. The "oval enclosure" noted by Reid is possibly a hut circle, but it is so obscured by peat that there is doubt as to its classification. It survives as an oval platform set into the E-facing slope of a knoll, and measures 10.0m NE-SW by 9.0m transversely within what may have been an overgrown collapsed wall 0.2m high and 2.5m spread width. Few stones are exposed in the peat, and no inner or outer face is discernible. There is no identifiable entrance, and no trace of a field system.
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (N K B) 17 April 1980.