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MHG13052 - Burnt Mound - Stronchrubie

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NC21NW 3 2490 1870.
On a fairly level river terrace within degraded pasture is a turf-covered burnt mound measuring 12m E-W by 11m transversely and 1m high. There is a depression extending from the centre towards S side, where there is an old watercourse, now dry. Erosion in W side reveals a content of small stones and earth; the former shows some evidence of burning. There is no trace of hut circles or associated cultivation in the area.
Surveyed at 1:10,000. Visited by OS (J B) 2 September 1980.

Surveyed by the Assynt's Hidden Lives project in November 2009. Situated on flat ground to the east of River Loanan is a burnt mound measuring 13m x 10m x 0.75m, aligned E-W. The mound is crescent shaped and completely grassed over with an opening towards the river to the south. Four small clearance cairns, HLP 44, are situated to the east and south-east of the mound which itself seems completely undisturbed. <1>

As part of the Assynt Fire and Water Festival, an excavation was undertaken by AOC Archaeology Group in 2012 in order to investigate the burnt mound at Stronchubie near Inchnadamph. The excavation was accompanied by a series of experiments in order to test the effectiveness of boiling water using local stone. The mound was found to occupy a small natural mound situated next to a relict streambed. The mound of burnt stone was a metre deep at its deepest point, penannular in plan surrounding a central pit. The pit was sub-triangular with sides two metres long and a small channel running in the direction of the stream bed. This channel was found to be roughly level with the streambed, suggesting that the pit could have been filled from that source. The central pit may have been lined with flat slabs of quartzite, only four of which were in situ. All deposits within the mound contained charcoal; this was sampled in order to provide a series of radiocarbon dates. The determinations from these samples indicate activity spanning the middle centuries of the second millennium BC, with a second period of activity in the tenth century AD indicated from charcoal in layers above a clay sealing deposit above the central pit. <2>

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 2490 1870 (16m by 16m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC21NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	ASSYNT

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