An Cnoc Buidhe

NC82NE 8 876 278.

See also NC82NE 34 and 62.

(A: NC 8758 2778, B: NC 8765 2777) Enclosure (NR).

OS 6" map, (1962)

Centred at NC 876 278, on the lower west-facing slopes of An Cnoc Buidhe, is a settlement of three stone-walled huts (A-C), of which A and B were discovered by the previous field investigator

Information from OS (EGC) 28 May 1961.

Hut 'A' is 10.0m N-S by 9.0m E-W within a low wall spread to 2.5m wide. The entrance in the south arc is 3.0m wide, and is probably mutilated. 'B' is a much more massive structure being 13.3m NE-SW by 12.3m within a peat and heather-covered wall, 1.0m maximum height with a spread thickness of 3.0m widening to 4.0m at the clubbed entrance in the SW arc. Occasional inner facing stones on edge are visible.

'C' is probably of similar type to 'A', but its eastern half is destroyed by a modern beaten track. It survives as a semi-circle of heather-covered walling,built onto the hill,about 9.0m in internal diameter. The huts lie within an associated field system occupying six hectares of moorland, and best preserved at NC 876279. It is defined chiefly by clearance heaps with only occasional lynchets. Several field plots are evident, one of which measures 25.0m by 25.0m.

Revised at 1/10,000

Visited by OS (JB) 3 December 1976

NC 876 278 A settlement of three huts with a burnt mound (NC82NE 34) and a field system, as per OS, surveyed at 1:500

K Sabine 1980

There are four hut-circles and a burnt mound set on a series of natural terraces on the WNW flanks of An Cnoc Buidhe. Scattered small cairns, field banks and lynchets surround the hut-circles and extend to the N and W. A series of trackways cut across the area, some with substantial revetments on the downslope side.

A. NC 8758 2778 This hut-circle measures 9.8m from N to S by 8.9m transversely within a stony bank 2.7m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The entrance is on the S and the interior has been levelled into the slope.

(KILD91 63)

B. NC 8765 2779 This hut-circle measures 13.4m from NE to SW by 12.3m transversely within a stone-faced bank 1.8m in thickness and 1.2m in height. The entrance is on the SW and the terminals of the bank have been thickened. There is coursed masonry on the inner face and the interior has been levelled into the slope.

(KILD91 60)

C. NC 8761 2789 This hut-circle measures 8.5m in diameter within a bank 2.8m in thickness and 0.4m in height. The entrance is on the W

and the E side has been mutilated by at least two trackways.

(KILD91 64)

D. NC 8766 2777 This hut-circle is visible as a platform, 5.5m in diameter, levelled to a depth of 0.5m into the slope.

(KILD91 62)

E. NC 8763 2776 This burnt mound measures 5.3m from N to S by 4.3m transversely with a depression 0.5m deep at its centre. The mound is composed of densely packed, cracked stones and black soil.

(KILD91 61)

The small cairns scattered across the hillside measure up to 6m in diameter and 0.7m in height. There are lynchets and field-banks interspersed amongst the cairns and what may have been several plots are visible to the N of the hut-circles.

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 10 March 1991.

A desktop and walkover survey was conducted in November 2018 for an area of proposed woodland of 20 hectares, the site lying adjacent to the site of hut circles (NRHE NC82NE 8) site had been surveyed previously in 1991 as part of the Afforestable Land Survey. Work revealed a number of clearance cairns which are likely to be associated with the existing hut circles.

Information from Stuart Farrell.