Cnoc An Liath Bhaid

NC70NW 6 7325 0921.

(NC 7325 0921) Hut Circle (NR) (NC 7334 0933 and NC 7329 0928) Enclosures (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1970).

The remains of a stone-built hut circle, about 36ft in internal diameter, set on a slight eminence. The entrance is from the SE, about 1ft 9ins wide, through a passage 9ft long, formed by a thickening of the wall which is 5ft thick elsewhere. At 19ft from the entrance, a wall, about 4ft thick, curves across the interior, enclosing an oval space about 22ft by 7ft 6ins whose entrance is obscured by the ruins. Against the back wall and partly recessed into it is a small circular enclosure about 3ft 6ins in diameter. There are indications of other enclosures

in the interior. There are no mounds in the immediate vicinity.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

A hut circle 12m in diameter with a wall of large boulders, 2m wide and generally 0.5m high. It is as described and planned by the RCAHMS, except that no 'indications of other enclosures' were seen in the interior.

At NC 7329 0928, 70m NE of the hut circle, are the fragmentary remains of an oval enclosure, 13m from NW to SE by 9.3m transversely, formed by widely-spaced boulders and having no apparent entrance.

At NC 7334 0933 are the remains of another enclosure, outlined by turf-covered boulders about 0.5m high. It measures 14.2m from NE to SW by 11.9m transversely and has a gap in the SE, and a probable entrance in the NE.

Visited by OS (W D J) 16 April 1964.

The hut circle, on a spur in a SW-facing hillside, measures 11.2m in diameter within a wall 1.5m wide, expanding to 2.5m in the sides of the entrance, in the SE; the wall stands to an average height of 0.5m and exhibits a fairly well-preserved inner face of contiguous boulders. Springing from the inside of the wall in the NNW is a subsidiary arc of turf-covered rubble forming a compartment, some 6.0m from NE to SW by 3.5m; the small circular enclosure noted by the RCAHMS within the compartment is probably fortuitous debris. There is a scatter of stones in the N quadrant of the hut but otherwise nothing to indicate the other enclosures mentioned by the RCAHMS. There are no signs of associated land-use.

The enclosure published at NC 7329 0928 survives as the slightest of platforms, roughly oval, measuring 14.0m by 10.0m, edged with several individual sttones in the SE half and elsewhere by a fragmentary band of turf-covered stones.

The enclosure at NC 7334 0933 is described by an arc of stony bank, at best 1.5m broad and 0.3m high, measuring 15.0m along the chord and 8.0m transversely.

These alleged enclosures in all likelihood were not upstanding structures, but rather features derived from fields or plots of later land-use. The region is shelving hillside, now predominantly turf and bracken-covered, indicative of early modern land-use.

Hut Circle: Revised at 1:10,000

Visited by OS (J M) 31 March 1981.