Allt Bad A'choilich

ND02SE 22 096 239.

At ND 096 239, on an E-facing slope in open moorland, are two hut circles (A and B) and an enclosure (C).

'A' is heavily overgrown with heather and peat, and there is little exposure of stone in the wall. It is 9.0m in diameter within a wall, 0.4m average height, spread to 2.0m. There are two gaps in the SE arc. 'B' is better preserved, set into the slope with a back-scarp 1.0m high, and measures 10.5m NW-SE by 7.5m transversely within a wall spread to 2.0m in the SW, 4.0m in the NE, and 4.5m at the entrance in the SE. One or two facing-stones and the rubble core are visible intermittently through the dense heather.

Enclosure 'C' is subrectangular, aligned E-W down the gentle slope. It measures about 16.0 by 5.0m within a heather-covered wall 0.5m high and spread to 2.0m. Some rubble stone is exposed in the wall, but there are no facing-stones visible and no evidence of internal structures. The lower (E) end appears to be open, and there is a gap along the W side. The enclosure is deep-set into the peat and heather like the hut circles, suggesting considerable antiquity, and the mode of construction, as far as it can be interpreted, is also similar. There is no trace of early-modern occupation in the vicinity. It may be a dwelling broadly contemporary with the hut circles and similar in function to the rectangular aisled homesteads common to Caithness (see ND02NW 2), but lacking the upright stone supports for a roof. See ND02SE 24 for a similar feature. There is no trace of associated cultivation.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (NKB) 8 November 1982