Hungry Snout

Some 400 yards north of Friars Nose Fort (No. 219), on the opposite side or left bank of the Whitadder, is a fine group of stone-walled hut circles (fig.159) occupying the summit of a broad slope, immediately east of Snailscleuch, at an elevation of 800 feet above sea-level and about 100 feet above the Whitadder. The chief features of this group are two large irregular areas impinging on each other, both surrounded by a stone wall 1 foot high on the outside and deeply excavated in the interior. The larger area measures over the outside about 55 feet from north-west to south-east and about 80 feet from north-east to south-west, and in places the wall rises nearly 3 feet above the lowest part of the interior. It contains at least four hut circles on the inside of the western segment of the enclosing wall and a fifth near the centre, each about II feet in diameter internally. The smaller of the two large enclosures lies to the south-east of the larger and measures some 66 feet from east to west over the exterior and some 61 feet from north to south and is about 5 feet deep in the inside. A large portion of this enclosure is obscured by heaps of stones, but there seem to have been at least two hut circles against the interior of the wall to the north-west and one to the northeast. Outside the northern section of the larger area are three hut circles; the first, with an internal diameter of 12 feet and a stone wall 2 ½ feet thick, impinges on the north-eastern arc; the second, some 22 feet to the north-east, and the third, some 21 feet to the north-west, have each an internal diameter of 9 feet and a wall of 2 ½ feet thickness. About 28 feet north by west of the second of these circles is a circular excavated hollow about10 feet in diameter. Some 43 feet east of the smaller of the two larger areas is a hut circle with an internal diameter of 9 feet surrounded by a stone wall, from whose northern and southern arcs a wall seems to curve, a few yards to the east as if to enclose a circular annexe. In the angle between the large enclosures on their east side are two hut circles 9feet in diameter. About 34 feet south-west of the smaller of the two chief constructions are the faint traces of two impinging hut circles, respectively 25 and 12 feet in diameter within walls 2 ½ feet thick and 9 inches to 1 foot in height. Running eastward from these the indistinct foundations of a stone wall can be traced for 60 feet, when it turns at right angles towards the north.

A second group of hut circles occurs about 60 yards north of the above group. It shows a large irregularly shaped enclosure with a much-dilapidated wall and measures about 45 feet from east to west and 43 feet from north to south. There seem to have been entrances from the east and the north. There are six hut circles in its immediate vicinity. The first, impinging on the outside, at the north-west of the wall, is about 12 feet in diameter; the second, impinging on the south-western corner is a finely preserved example, being 15 feet in diameter internally with a wall 3 feet thick and It feet high, but no entrance can be traced; the third, which lies about 40 feet to the north-west is 7 feet in diameter internally; the fourth, which lies about 25 feet farther to the north-west, shows the half of a circle about 20 feet in diameter; the fifth, 40 feet to the east of the central structure, is some 19 feet in diameter internally and has a curved bank of stone and earth springing from its western arc and covering the entrance; and the sixth, some 28 feet to the north-east of the last, is 12 feet in diameter in the inside.

The slope on which the hut circles are built is bordered on the west and south by steep declivities falling more than 50 feet. But to the north and east slight walls of earth and stone have been thrown up enclosing an area of over 400 yards from north to south and nearly 300 yards from east to west. Starting from the edge of Snailscleuch a wall, now about 10 feet wide in places and rising 1 foot in height, is carried to the south-east a distance of some 220 yards, where it seems to turn south and can only be traced at intervals. About 40 yards to the east of this wall, after it turns south, a similar wall can be traced running parallel for some distance. These walls have not been built in a straight line. Several heaps of stones in the vicinity of the walls on the east, varying in diameter from 12 feet to 20 feet, resemble cairns. A large part of the area is covered by a rank growth of heather and bracken, which obscures many of the structures. Excavation would probably disclose many features which are not noted.

See Berwickshire Nat. Club. vol. xxi., p. 200.

RCAHMS 1924, visited 2 July 1913.

OS Map ref: xvi. S.E.

The location, classification and period of this site have been reviewed.

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council