Cnoc An Liath-bhaid

NC71SW 2 728 101.

(NC 729 101) (Name) Settlement and Field System (NR) (Three features, A-C, shown at NC 729 100) (E: NC 7284 1019) Undescribed feature.

OS 1:10,000 map, (1971)

Some 300 yards south-east of the stone circle on Cnoc an Liath-bhaid (NR71SW 1) is a group of mounds, some of which are rather larger than usual. Near the south end of the group is a large hut circle (B) with three smaller circles abutting on it, and a smaller circular enclosure in the interior. Some 40 yards east of the stone circle is an old enclosure (E). Traces of an old wall can be seen on the lower side of this enclosure.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

Three hut circles (A-C) and an enclosure (E). The numerous mounds in the vicinity appear to be field clearance heaps.

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

Centred on NC 728 101, along shelving ground in a south-west facing hillside, is a settlement of four hut circles (A-D) accompanied by a field system. The huts are heather-covered and the walls collapsed; entrances no longer survive in huts B and C.

'A' measures 5.0m diameter within a wall 0.3m high and spread from 1.5m to 2.5m in the sides of an entrance in the SE.

'B' is intruded on by a secondary hut circle destroying much of the E wall arc. In the former the remaining wall-spread, at most pronounced 2.0m broad and up to 0.3 high, indicates an internal size of approximately 9.0m diameter. The secondary hut, set into the slope, measures some 6.5m N-S, by 5.0m inside an ill-defined wall-spread with no obvious entrance; in the interior against the N arc is a pile of bare stones. Lying N-S in the E half of the first hut is a curving band of heather-covered rubble, 1.0m wide and 0.1m high, of uncertain significance. The RCAHMS mentions three smaller circles abutting on hut B but these were not specifically identified but probably refer to the feature noted.

'C', set in the slope, measures 13.5m N-S by 11.5m over a scant wall-spread.

Hut 'D' is 10.0m N-S by 9.0m E-W within a wall spread from 2.5m to 3.0m and up to 0.4m high. The entrance is in the S.

The "old enclosure" noted by RCAHMS (E) appears to be a fortuitous arrangement, formed by a ruinous field wall around the SW arc, which continues along the hillside to the NW and SE, and a curving back scarp around the NE arc; both field wall and back scarp are probably a result of land-use associated with the hut circles. There are a number of stone clearance heaps from 10.0 to 20.0m apart, occasional lynchets and meandering field walls, all comprising a field system associated with the hut circles, but no measureable plots are discernible.

Revised at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (J M) 1 April 1981.