Cnoc An Torra Mhoir, Sciberscross
Field System (Prehistoric), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Cnoc An Torra Mhoir, Sciberscross
Classification Field System (Prehistoric), Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 6076
Site Number NC71SE 31
NGR NC 777 106
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/6076
- Council Highland
- Parish Clyne
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC71SE 31 777 106.
('A': NC 7794 1055 and 'B': NC 7772 1058) Two stone-walled hut circles within an extensive field system were discovered during field investigation on the south-facing slopes of Cnoc an Torra Mhoir.
In contrast to the field system which in unusually well-preserved, the huts are severely denuded, their walls reduced to low bands of rubble, overgrown with peat. They measure about 13.0m to 14.0m in diameter between wall centres. In each case, the position of the entrance in uncertain. The whole of the north arc of hut 'A' is destroyed, and a cultivation plot extends into the hut interior.
The field system, which measures about 600m E-W by 200m N-S, is best preserved in the area immediately west of hut 'A', and comprises numerous cultivation plots, irregular in shape, average size 40.0m by 20.0m, which are delineated by ruinous boulder walls, lynchets and clearance, both linear and heaped. A field bank demarcates the edge of the system in the NW, while in the south and east, later agriculture, including narrow rig, encroaches upon and obscures the earlier cultivation.
Surveyed at 1/10,560.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; Visited by OS (J M) 16 March 1976.
Field Visit (19 August 1909)
34. Sciberscross. Some 400 yards N. of the farm-house is a considerable group of mounds, some of them larger than usual, and in conjunction with those above mentioned, they stretch along the hillside eastward for nearly ¾ m.
One mound near the W. end of the group, lying ESE. and WNW., measures 29' in length by 13' at the W. end, and 10' at the E. It is about 2' high. Another near it, lying N. and S., measures 25' x 15'.
Close by is a large circular enclosure, well defined, measuring 44 x 46 interiorly, surrounded by a bank about 10' in thickness and having an entrance probably from the SE., but indefinite.
Facing southward near it is a semicircular enclosure 52' across the opening, with a bank about 2' high and 8' to 10' across. A mound near it measures 33' in diameter.
The mounds of this group are large and very numerous, some of them measuring from 20' to 30' in diameter, and from 3' to 3' 6" in height. Towards the NE. they are rather smaller, and some have been excavated, but there are no cists exposed. At this end is a small hut circle, measuring 13' x 19' interiorly, with a bank 5' thick in the circumference widening to 13' on either side of the entrance. There are remains of numerous old banks or walls running along the hillside.
OS 6-inch map: Sutherland Sheet xcvi. (unnoted).
RCAHMS 1911, visited (AOC) 19th August 1909.
