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Watenan Farm
Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric), Quarry (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Watenan Farm
Classification Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric), Quarry (Period Unassigned)
Canmore ID 9013
Site Number ND34SW 15
NGR ND 31613 41333
NGR Description ND 31613 41333 and ND 31624 41342
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9013
- Council Highland
- Parish Wick
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
ND34SW 15 31613 41333 and 31624 41342
(Area: ND 316 413) Two hut circles lie about 200 yds WNW of Watenan farm. The larger seems to have been oval, some 30ft long with an entrance on the SSE, and to have been cut in two by a bank laid segmentally from side to side, with a concave outline towards the entrance, and enclosing an area, circular in form, with a diameter of 19ft. The outer bank has been seven feet thick and is worn away on the NW. The smaller circle lies about 15ft to the NE, and has a diameter of 14ft and a bank 7 to 8ft thick. The entrance seems to have been from the south.
RCAHMS 1911.
At ND 3161 4134 are the heather-covered remains of two (?)huts, one circular, the other sub-rectangular, generally as described by the RCAHMS, except that no walling is to be seen within them. There are no associated fields visible.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (N K B) 5 May 1967.
There are two hut-circles and a recent quarry on the SW side of a knoll 200m NW of Watenan farmsteading. The NW side of the SW hut-circle (YARROWS04 203) has been destroyed by the quarry, but the surviving part, which includes an entrance on the S, measures 7m in diameter within a wall reduced to a grass-grown bank at least 2m in thickness and up to 0.7m in height on the SW. On the W side of the entrance an upright slab of the inner face can be seen, and another edge-set stone protrudes from the middle of the bank. The interior of the hut-circle appears to be levelled into the slope on the N.
The second hut-circle (YARROWS04 204) is situated about 6m to the NE and measures 4.6m in diameter within a grass-grown stony bank up to 2m in thickness and 0.4m in height on the E. A small quarry scoop, which cuts into the bank on the N, has revealed what appears to be an inner facing-stone leaning heavily to the S. The entrance is on the S. The interior has been levelled into the slope on the N, while on the S it may have been raised up on a low platform.
The quarry (YARROWS04 563) that has destroyed the NW part of the SW hut-circle measures 20m from NE to SW by up to 13m transversely and has been dug into the slope on the NE to a depth of at least 2m. The quarry was probably opened to provide metalling for the re-surfacing of some of the trackways in the vicinity.
(YARROWS04 203, 204, 563)
Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH), 26 May 2004 .
