Bighouse
Field System (Prehistoric), Hut Circle (Prehistoric)
Site Name Bighouse
Classification Field System (Prehistoric), Hut Circle (Prehistoric)
Alternative Name(s) Halladale Bridge
Canmore ID 6911
Site Number NC86SE 6
NGR NC 8997 6339
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/6911
- Council Highland
- Parish Farr
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Sutherland
- Former County Sutherland
NC86SE 6 899 633.
('A': NC 89956330 and 'B' NC 89976339 and 'C' NC 89956342) Hut Circles (NR) ('D' NC 90006346) Hut Circle (NR) ('E' NC 90006336) Enclosure (NR) OS 6"map, (1964)
A settlement of five simple hut circles ('A' to 'E') with a few contemporary fields on a west-facing slope. The huts are oval except 'E' which is circular; all have entrances in the south.
'A' is thickly covered by peat and heather. It measures 7.0m by 6.0m within a low wall spread to 1.5m.
'B' and 'D' are similar in size and construction. They measure about 8.0m N-S by 7.0m within heather-covered walls spread to 2.5m and 0.5m in average height.
'C' is a well-defined heather-covered hut circle measuring 9.5m N-S by 7.0m within a wall up to 0.5m high and spread to 2.5m.
'E', generally well-defined is 9.0m in diameter within a wall to 0.7m high and spread to 2.5m RCAHMS mention a chamber to the left of the entrance but this may be the result of the displacing of facing stones. The remains of the irregular shaped mound and wall also noted by the RCAHMS are very slight and indefinite, they may be the result of mutilation but there are parallels at NC86SW 2 and NC76SE 4.
Abutting the huts SE arc is a small, turf-covered mound of stones. One of the stones has obviously been burnt and a few flakes of charcoal are visible on the surface.
There are several stone clearance heaps among the huts, and immediately west of 'C' there are several well-defined fields varying between 12m by 10m and 30m by 20m, marked by lynchets and clearance heaps.
Surveyed at 1:2500 (OS {A A} 1 November 1972).
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909; Visited by OS (W D J) 5 May 1960, (A A) 1 November 1972 and (J B) 21 June 1977.
Field Visit (29 September 1909)
A little more than 1 m SSE of Bighouse Lodge, on the E side of the Thurso road, is a hut circle. The enclosing bank, which is about 3' in height, has been largely formed of stones. The interior diameter is 32'. The entrance has been from the SE through a passage 10' in length, the thickness of the bank in the circumference being about 7'. In the centre of the interior is a small stony mound 9' in diameter and 2' in height. From the SW.side of it, 18' distant from the entrance, a, wall appears to have crossed to the bank, as if to form the back of a chamber facing the entrance. Some 10' to the left of the entrance a narrow break in the bank, 1' 6" wide, gives access to a ·small enclosure, formed of large stones, with an interior diameter of 7'. In the interior of the main structure there are indications of other walls, but so overgrown as to be indefinite (fig. 25). This circle is almost identical in plan with that above Strathy Church (RCAHMS 1911, No. 230).
Some 50 yards to the NE. are the remains of another enclosure of simple oval form, the bank of which is much worn away. The entrance is from the SE., and the interior dimensions 23' x 27'.
Some 30 yards N. on the other side of the road is another similar construction, entering from the SE., through an entrance 2' wide, and with banks 6' to 7' thick. The interior measurements are about22' x 30'. Four or five small mounds, overgrown with turf and heather, lie quite near. One of these, some 30' N., is 18' in diameter, has a depression on the top, and is about 2' 6" in height.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 29 September 1909.
OS 6” map unnoted
