Craig Fell

NX16SE 1733 6033 to 1750 6025.

A large group of small cairns, varying in diameter from 10' to 12' and 1' to 2' in height, lies on a flat stretch of moorland immediately above the Glen plantation. There are also the remains of hut circles, mostly very ill-defined.

One hut measures from 6' to 7' in interior diameter, and has had a wall 3'6" in thickness, the outer face of which has been marked with large boulders. The position of the entrance appears to have been from the SE. To the north a wall seems to have run from it for a distance of 21', with an indefinite foundation at its termination. There are observable in several directions the remains of old walls. A small enclosure of 5' diameter was observed in the thickness of one of these walls. To the north of the upper end of the plantation the cairns are large and numerous, the largest measuring 24' x 18'.

The hut circles have probably been formed of turf, with an irregular outline of boulders set on end on either face. The turf has gone and the lines of boulders are difficult to follow, especially as there is so much stone naturally on the surface.

To the NW of the Glen plantation and towards the NE end of the area is a fairly definite hut circle. A small circle with an interior diameter of 5', and a wall 2 1/2' thick, entered from the east, has been contained within an outer circular wall running from either side of the entrance, and forming an incomplete circle with a diameter of 13'. The line of the outer wall, except where it comes into contact with the smaller circle, is merely represented by large stones set at intervals.

RCAHMS 1912

The only area in which old walls and cairns could be found was within the field centred on NX 1740 6025. The cairns are undoubtedly field clearance heaps while the old walls form enclosures and fields. No definite trace of huts could be found.

The only cairn which does not appear to be field clearance is at NX 1733 6033; it measures c.8.0m in diameter by 0.5m high, with what may be a cist in the centre. The area to the W has been deep ploughed and planted with conifers and no trace of any significant features could be found within it.

Cairn suveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 12 March 1968

Little remains of a large group of small cairns recorded in 1911 on a flat stretch of moorland to the N of Glen Plantation. The bulk of the cairns were probably destroyed when the area to the W of the old head dyke was afforested and only a few cairns and banks can still be identified in the field to the E, which has now also been afforested. These include the cairn noted by OS in 1968 at NX 1733 6033, situated on a low rock outcrop and measuring 9m in diameter by 0.6m in height; it may well be a burial cairn but there is no trace of the possible cist noted, despite the disturbance caused by the plough furrows cutting through the mound. None of the structures described as hut-circles in 1911 were located, but they were probably either robbed cairns or pens and shieling huts of relatively recent date.

RCAHMS 1987, visited (SH) 18 June 1986; RMS MS. 578, 5.