Allt Cille Pheadair

NC91NE 30 992 198

See also NC91NE 7.

(NC 992 198) (Three) Enclosures (NR)

OS 6" map, (1964)

On the E side of the Cille Pheadair burn, about 1 mile N of its junction with the Helmsdale River, is a group of three contiguous enclosures, two of which appear to have been cattle or sheep folds. A horn projects on the W side of the entrance to the most easterly one. An opening has been broken through the banks of this and the northerly enclosure, apparently at a later date. Near the three enclosures are a dozen or so small mounds. Some 30 yards N, on the end of a slight knoll, is a cup-shaped hollow, with an opening to the S, 10' in diameter and apparently lined with stones. Some 30 yards S is a circular enclosure with traces of an inner compartment.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

The three contiguous enclosures comprise a hut circle (A) an enclosure (B), and a semi-enclosed area. In the interior of the hut are traces of two small compartments. Some 40.0m W of hut A is another hut circle (C) that is almost certainly the last enclosure noted by the RCAHMS. The cup-shaped hollow could not be identified. The mounds are probably field clearance heaps.

Visited by OS (W D J) 20 May 1960.

There are three stone-walled houses (A-C) in association with a field system. The situation is rising moorland open to the S. The huts are reduced and heather-covered but seem broadly similar.

'A' is 9.0m diameter inside a wall of main width 2.0m broadening to 3.0m at an obscure entrance from the SSE. The ground to the rear of the hut is partially enclosed on the N and E sides, by a low scarp scooped from the ascending slope and joining to the NE arc of the hut.

'B' is 9.5m diameter internally. The wall has a general spread of 3.0m that increases to 4.5m at a clubbed entrance, 3.0m wide, from the S. A form of forecourt precedes the entrance, evidenced by a seemingly built-up and levelled crescentic area 4.5m by 3.0m, partially enclosed on the S and W sides, by a low curving bank that connects in the W of the entrance.

'C' is 9.0m inside diameter. The wall, at a choked entrance, from the SSE, is spread to 3.5m but in the NNW has been broken through, and elsewhere is vague.

The alleged traces of inner compartments in huts A and C are too tenuous to be conclusive. In the slope some 90.0m N of hut C is a low depresion, Approximately 3.5m diameter, inside a vaguely suggested bank. No stone is apparent. This may be the cup-shaped hollow referred to but it seems natural or at best a surface quarry.

The field system occupying four hectares, is best distinguished by a stone-free close-cropped appearance marked with scattered field clearance heaps, except to the N of hut B where there is an appreciable concentration. There are occasional substantial lynchets, and in the vicinity of the huts, indecisive signs of a pattern of field banks. Re-urveyed at 1:10,560.

Visited by OS (J M) 1 July 1976.