Links Of Dunnet

ND26NW 5 222 696

(A: ND 2224 6967; B: ND 2221 6960) Cairns (NR)

OS 6" map, (1959)

A: A probable hut circle comprising a bent-covered mound 55ft N-S by 66ft transversely and 4ft high with a depression in the centre, about 30ft in diameter. Two or three thin slabs protrude through the surface of the interior. Limpet shells, etc, have been turned up by rabbits around the site.

B: A conical, sandy mound 33ft in diameter and 5ft high. From the top two thin slabs protrude 5ft 8ins apart, inclining towards each other at an angle of about 15 to 20. Some 6ft and 9ft respectively to the W, another pair on similar alignment are just visible about 5ft distant from each other. The construction does not appear to be a chambered cairn.

RCAHMS 1911, visited 1910.

'A' is a circular, stone-walled hut on a slight knoll in an area of grass-covered sand dunes and it measures 9.8m in diameter within a wall of which traces of the inner face are visible for most of the periphery. A recent excavation inside the E arc has exposed 2.0m of this face

which is carefully built dry walling of flat slabs laid horizontally and visible to a maximum height of 0.6m. There is no trace of the outer face and the wall thickness could not be ascertained. The excavation occurs within a sub-oval chamber built against the inner face measuring 3.5 by 1.7m internally. The W side is built of slabs on edge. Neither the entrance to the hut nor to the chamber is visible. About 15.0m to the SE of the hut and just protruding through the turf is a thin slab on edge 1.1m long facing WSW-ENE. Its purpose is obscure. There is no trace of contemporary cultivation.

'B' is a sandy mound of uncertain classification about 15.0m in diameter and 1.0m maximum height. A recent small excavation on the top has exposed several 'building type stones' which may be part of a structure not fully uncovered and of uncertain purpose. There is no trace of the thin slabs noted by the RCAHMS although a prostrate slab, 0.9 by 0.5m lies on the SE side of the mound.

Surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (I S S) 9 March 1972.

(A: ND 2224 6967) (one of three) Hut Circles (NR) (B: ND 2221 6960) Mound (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1975)

No change to the previous field report.

Visited by OS (J M) 22 April 1982.

A broch, 15m in diameter and 2m high, comprising a circular, banked structure on the top of a mound with stones visible in the centre. Excavation revealed a sub-oval chamber of slabs and dry-walling.

R J Mercer 1981.