Islay, Kintour
Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Site Name Islay, Kintour
Classification Hut Circle(S) (Prehistoric)
Canmore ID 38092
Site Number NR45SW 3
NGR NR 44610 51724
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38092
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Kildalton And Oa
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR45SW 3 4461 5168
NR 445 517. Three round houses. The largest is 42ft overall with a 9ft wide wall indicated by inner and outer kerbs. A semi-circular line of kerbing follows the S arc within the house, 3ft from the wall. The other houses are 33ft and 28ft overall. To the SW a wide, shallow, circular hollow, over 50ft in diameter, appears to be artificial and may have contained a homestead.
F Newall 1964.
At NR 4461 5168, on a low, dry rise in a flat boggy area are the remains of three turf-covered hut circles in which intermittent facing stones are exposed. The better preserved example (a) to the south-west is 7.5m in diameter within a wall 2.5m wide; the entrance of simple form is in the south-east arc.
The other hut (B) is 4.5m in diameter within a wall 1.3m wide; the entrance is in the SE.
The third (C) is situated 3.5m SW of 'A' and is in a denuded condition, but appears to have measured 7.5m within a wall 1.3m wide and reduced to a height of 0.2m. About three inner facing stones are exposed. The entrance appears to have been in the east or north-east arc, but is now indistinct. There is no trace of associated cultivation.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (NKB) 25 March 1979.
Field Visit (June 1980)
NR 446 516. Situated on a slight rise in rough pasture about 1km WNW of Kintour, and 400m SW of Dun Fhinn (RCAHMS 1984 No. 211), there are four hut-circles. The northernmost (A) is roughly circular measuring 4m in diameter within what is now a stony bank 1m thick and 0.2m high with many of the inner and outer facing-stones visible. The entrance is on the SE, and if the large stones that now flank the gap originally formed the passage, it was splayed and measured 4m at the outer end and 1.8m at the inner end. Hut-circle B is the largest of the group, measuring about 8m in diameter and survives as a stony bank 2.2m thick and 0.2m high; the entrance is on the SE. Considerable stretches of inner and outer facing-stones are still in position, and on the NE there are four stones of a medial wall-face, probably indicating that, as at NR57SW 1 (RCAHMS 1984, No. 255), the hut-circle is of multi-period construction. The wasted remains of hut-circle C comprise a band of stone about 6m in internal diameter appearing through the turf, with five possible outer facing-stones and one inner visible. The southernmost hut-circle (D) is oval on plan and measures about 6m by 8m within a turf-covered bank 0.2m in maximum height revetted by several inner and two outer facing-stones; the entrance is on the E.
Visited June 1980
RCAHMS 1984
Measured Survey (1980)
RCAHMS surveyed the hut circle at Kintour at a scale of 1:200. The plans were redrawn in ink and published at a reduced scale (RCAHMS 1984, fig. 143B).
