Ballachar

NH62NW 26 6216 2793, 6218 2791 and 6241 2794

There are three hut-circles situated on terraces around rocky knolls at the edge of the scrubby woodland above the steep slopes dropping down to Loch Ruthven. Patches of relatively stone-free, smooth ground around the hut-circles may have been cultivated, with both linear and circular clearance heaps within, and at the edges of these 'smooth' areas.

The two westernmost hut-circles are situated on a broad, relatively stone-free terrace on the N side of a knoll lying on the edge of the steep, birch-covered slopes rising up from the N side of Loch Ruthven. The westernmost hut-circle (USN93 229, NH 6216 2793) measures 10.8m in diameter within a faced stony bank 2m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The entrance is on the SW. The second hut-circle (USN93 230, NH 6218 2791) lies about 25m to the SE and measures 10.8m from NNW to SSE by 9.1m transversely within a faced bank 2.1m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The S side is levelled into the slope and, although the position of the entrance is not clear, it may have been on the N.

To the S and W of the hut-circles, within the 'smooth' ground there is one small cairn about 3m in diameter and a linear clearance heap 20m in length.

The third hut-circle (USN93 231, NH 6241 2794) is situated within scrub woodland on a S-facing terrace some 250m E of the previous hut-circles. It measures 10m in diameter within a stony bank measuring 1.3m in thickness and 0.4m in height. The entrance, which is on the ESE, is 2.4m wide.

About 90m to the W of this hut-circle a bank about 1.5m in thickness and 0.5m in height runs across the contour dividing the well-drained ground on the edge of the knoll from a peat-filled basin. The better-drained ground to the E of the bank may have been cultivated and there are several cairns measuring no more than 3m in diameter.

(USN93 229-31)

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 18 November 1992.