Achany Glen
Field System (Prehistoric), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Achany Glen
Classification Field System (Prehistoric), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 5137
Site Number NC50SE 8
NGR NC 583 024
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/5137
- Council Highland
- Parish Creich (Sutherland)
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC50SE 8 583 024.
(NC 5831 0257) Hut Circle (NR)
(A: NC 5831 0241, B: NC 5825 0246 and NC 5837 0243) Hut Circles (NR)
OS 1:10,000 map, (1970)
Some 500 yards E of the road to Bonar Bridge, on the hillside, is a considerable group of mounds, and near them a large pear-shaped enclosure: the E wall is continued and another wall runs from the W side of the enclosure roughly, parallel to it. To the N is a small circle. About 1/4 mile N of the Allt na Fearna Mor, and some 400 yards E of the road, is a double hut circle (A).
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.
The features noted by RCAHMS (1911) were located during field investigation, and, additionally, an enclosure (B) and a hut circle at NC 5837 0243 were found.
Of the four hut circles published on OS 1:10,000 map, (1970), 'A' is a stone-walled hut partially overlying an earlier type and B is a hut of similar build to the later of the huts constituting 'A'. The circle at NC 5831 0257 appears to be a clearance heap 9.0m in diameter, whose centre has been robbed of stones, and that at NC 5837 0243 is a small enclosure probably of recent date. It is 5.5m in diameter within a wall of bare stones about 1.0m wide, with both faces showing intermittently. There is no entrance discernible.
The huts occur within a well-preserved field system. 'A' built on a slope, is 10.0m N-S by 8.5m E-W within a massive tumbled wall spread to 2.5m broad, which widens to 4.0m at the entrance in the south arc and the downslope in the west.
A ruinous boulder wall extends from the west side of the entrance in a SW direction, and forms the south boundary of the field system before fading. The NE arc of the hut overlays the SW wall of the earlier hut which is the less well-preserved of the two, with a low peat-covered wall spread to 2.5m broad. It measures internally 11.5m N-S by 10.0m E-W; the entrance is in the south arc with a large squarish boulder flanking the east side. Hut 'B', also built up on a slope and revetted on the west side, is 8.5m internal diameter within a wall generally spread to 2.5m broad. The entrance, now indistinct,is in the SSE arc. The field system occupies three hectares of an undulating west-facing hill-slope, and comprises a number of irregularly shaped cultivation plots, average size 35.0m by 20.0m, which are delineated by lynchets, field walls, stone clearance heaps and linear clearance. The enclosure at NC 5832 0254 appears contemporary with the field system.
Revised at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (J M) 28 July 1976.
Field Visit (22 June 1909)
56. S. of Lairg Station. About 200 yards short of the first milestone beyond Lairg Station, on the E. side of the road to Bonar bridge, immediately above it, and in the birch wood, are a group of a dozen small round mounds and the remains of a hut circle of simple oval form [NC50SE 38].
About 300 yards further S., and just past the milestone, on the same side of the road, is another group of about fourteen mounds and a well-preserved hut circle about 30 yards from the road. The circle measures 38' across, but as the bank at the entrance bas been thickened in the interior so as to make the passage 13' in length, the diameter from the NW. to SE. is only 32'. The entrance faces the SE. The bank is thicker and seems more peaty than usual. Abutting on the exterior of the bank at the S. is a smaller enclosure of about 16' x 13' interior measurement, with an entrance apparently from the SE., but it has been much broken down (fig. 7).
About 100 yards E. of the last is another circle of usual form. On either side of the entrance, which is in the customary direction, the outer edge of the bank has been outlined for 10' or 12' with large stones. Three mounds lie adjacent-one within 12' of the entrance.
Some 500 yards E. of the road, on the hillside, is another considerable group of mounds, and near them a large pear-shaped enclosure, measuring some 46' x 70', with a wide entrance from the
S. about 20' across[NC50SE 8]. The E. wall is continued round past the front of the entrance and follows the S. side of a hollow down hill to the
W. for about 100 yards. Some 60' N. of this wall another wall runs from the W. side of the enclosure roughly parallel along the other side of the hollow, and at about 100 yards turns sharply to the S. and passes the end of the first wall so as to leave an entrance way between them about 10' in width. To the N. of the large enclosure is a small circle, with interior diameter of about 10' enclosed within a bank of stone. and turf. To the S. of the enclosure and along the hillside to the S. for half a mile are numerous mounds and hut circles.
About ¼ m. N. of the Allt na Fearna Mor, and some 400 yards
E. of the road is a double hut circle. The circle on the W. is of the usual form, measuring 24' x 30', with entrance from the SE. apparently about 3' wide. It is at a slightly higher elevation than its neighbour. The second circle has been built against the first, the E. side of the former being the left side of the latter. Interiorly it measures 30' x 39', and has its entrance from the SE.
Some 40 yards S. is a double mounded construction which may possibly be a kiln [NC50SE 40]. In the centre is a circular depression of about 6' diameter, flanked on either side by mounds of earth and stone about 20' in length and 13' broad across the base where widest. They are at highest about 3' 6" high above the centre of the depression, and lie N. and S. To the S. is a narrow passage about 2' wide, defined on one side by a single square-edged stone 2' 4" long and by two similar stones on the opposite side. Though the mounds are not continued across the back of the construction there seems to be the base of a wall in that position.
OS 6-inch map: Sutherland Sheet ciii. (unnoted).
RCAHMS 1911, visited (AOC) 22nd June 1909.
