Balnacoil Hill

NC81SW 6 815 115.

(Centred NC 818 114) Hut Circles and Enclosures (NR) (Seven features shown A-G).

(Centred NC 811 114) Hut Circles (NR) (Two shown H and J).

(Centred NC 813 115) Field System (NR).

OS 6" map, (1969)

Between Balnacoil Lodge and the cairn on Balnacoil Hill (NC81SW 16), and along the S slope and level summit of the hill for a considerable distance to the east, are numerous small mounds.

RCAHMS 1911.

At least nine hut circles and enclosures and numerous field clearance heaps were discovered during field investigation.

Surveyed at 1:10 560

Visited by OS (R D L) 5 May 1964.

On an undulating S-facing slope in open moorland is a settlement of nine stone-walled huts (A-J) within an associated field system. All huts are entered through the SE arc; however hut J is mutilated on the E side and the entrance is uncertain.

Huts A and C are dissimilar to the others. They are large and oval (internlly 14.0m NW-SE by 12.0m and 15.0m NW-SE by 13.0m respectively) with relatively narrow walls 2.0m wide, faced internally with stones on edge. Both huts appear to have been robbed.

The other huts are of similar style, being circular varying in internal diameter from 9.0m (E) to 5.5m (B) within walls spread from 1.5m to 3.0m broad and 0.4m average height. Occasional inner facing stones and portal stones protrude through the peat. Hut E is the best-preserved and may have been re-used at a much later date. Its wall widens from 2.0m to 3.0m at the entrance which exhibits a distinctive outward splay. The extensive field system occupying about 28 hectares is best-preserved in the vicinity of huts A-G where cultivation plots 40.0m by 20.0m average size are visible delineated mainly be clearance heaps with occasional lynchets and low field walls. In the vicinity of huts H and J and the cairn (NC81SW 16), the clearance heaps are more scattered and the plots ill-defined. A number of later heather-covered walls occur within the field system.

Revised at 1/10,000.

Visited by OS (J B) 30 December 1975.