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MHG3385 - Settlement - Dalcrombie

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NH62NW 11 Centred NH 616 289.

Centred at NH 616 289 on a SW-facing slope is a settlement of 3 circular stone-walled huts (A-C) and a contemporary field system.
Hut 'A' is situated on a rise with a commanding view of Loch Ruthven, and measures 15.5m overall. The outer face is visible intermittenly all round, and one of two inner facing stones in the E give a wall thickness of 2.0m at this point. The mutilated entrance in the SE is flanked on its SW side by an upright boulder 1.1m high. There is a gap of about 3.0m between the hut in the NW and the commencement of a wall which forms the W boundary of a field to the NW of the hut measuring c. 80.0m by c. 70.0m. This gap appears to be an entrance to the field. A lynchet running SE from near the S arc of the hut, and a lynchet running SE from the E arc of hut 'B' edge a field measuring c. 40.0m by 20.0m, onto which 'A' and 'B' face.
Hut 'B' contiguous with 'A', measures 16.5m between the centres of a wall spread to c. 3.0m. There are three contiguous outer facing stones in the S arc, and one or two others in the N. The mutilated entrance is in the SE.
'C' is evident as an ill-defined platform obscured by heather, measuring c. 7.0m in diameter. The entrance is not evident.
About 15.0m to the SW of hut 'A' is an oval platform about 8.0m by c. 6.0m set into the slope. It may represent a hut platform, but this is not certain because of its silted up and generally poor condition.
The field system is best defined to the NW of the huts where it is marked mainly by ruinous walls with a few lynchets and stone clearance heaps. One plot measures 60.0m square.
Huts surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (A A) 14 December 1971.

This settlement and field-system are situated on the well-drained, gently-sloping SW flank of Creag Dearg, which is bounded on the S by a broad, peat-covered terrace and on the N by steep slopes and outcrop. The field-system is composed of enclosures of two distinct types. The core of the field-system, to the S, E and W of the hut-circle, comprises at least five fields measuring up to 100m across, and spread over about 500m from NW to SE, with positive lynchets up to 1m in height along the bottoms of the fields. The ground within these field banks appears as smoother and generally stone-free, in contrast to the ground outside the fields. The area to the NE and NW of the hut-circles is partially enclosed by banks into at least two much larger enclosures (steep slopes fill some of the gaps in the enclosures), measuring over 200m across, which may be part of a large-scale land-division, extending for about 1000m to the NW, W, S and E (for which see NH62NW 7, 10, and 12) across the broad terrace between Loch Duntelchaig and Loch Ruthven. A field to the SE of the hut-circles encloses an area of at least ten small cairns measuring up to 4m in diameter and 0.3m in height. What may be a hut, measuring 7.5m by 3.9m overall (USN93 248), is situated within the spread of small cairns, which may have been part of a larger spread of small cairns to the SE (NH63NW 12), before the improvement of the intervening ground. Three hut-circles occupy the leading edge of a small terrace on the SW flank of Creag Dhearg at the core of the field-system, with which it seems likely they are associated, overlooking the boggy flatter ground immediately to the SW. Two of the hut-circles are conjoined and measure 14.5m by 13.9m (USN93 250) and 12.7m by 11.6m (USN93 249) respectively while the third (USN93 251) measures 4.8m by 4m, all within faced grassy banks. The two large hut-circles have entrances measuring 2.7m and 3.2m across respectively and the stony bank may have been an enclosure around a predominantly timber house, although the interior of USN93 250 slopes down towards the entrance and it could have fulfilled another function, such as a byre.
A C-shaped burnt mound (USN93 252) is situated on the NW side of a small water-course at the NW extent of the core of small fields some 300m to the NW of the hut-circles. It measures 9m in diameter and 1.2m in height. The mound opens out on the SE and a sheep scrape on the SW side revealed a compact matrix of cracked, reddened stone, black soil and some charcoal.
(USN93 248-52)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 20 October 1992.

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Location

Grid reference	Centred NH 6155 2896 (423m by 384m) (5 map features)
Map sheet	NH62NW
Civil Parish	DAVIOT AND DUNLICHITY
Geographical Area	INVERNESS

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