Print

MHG36893 - Hut circle - Droman

Summary

The site contains the remains of a hut circle built against a small rock outcrop.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

A field survey of parts of the John Muir Trust's Sandwood Estate was carried out by ACFA members in July 1998. The initial selection of sites was guided by JMT's conservation manager.

At Droman two settlement sites were surveyed (NC 1905 5948 and NC 1910 5958) where blow-outs of the machair-type cover have revealed underlying features, for which quernstone finds indicate a date not later than 1st to 2nd century AD.

Large sections of the ridge to the SE of the Balchrick to Droman road have a machair-type cover, with shelly sand typically around lm deep providing the base for good pasturage and a notably diverse meadow flora. In some local areas however, mainly a little below the crest of the ridge on the NW side, more or less extensive blow-outs have occurred, exposing the underlying rock or stony surface. In two places, the remains of old settlements have thus been revealed.

Site 2.42. Settlement site with hut circle (`Quernstone Site')

This site lies some 200m SW of Site 1, and likewise has been exposed by blowout of the machair on the ridge.
The site contains the remains of a hut circle built against a small rock outcrop, these remains being identifiable despite some slippage due to the instability of the ground surface. Roughly half the site was exposed at the time of survey. The inner wallface of the hut circle was well defined in the NW but disappeared under remanent sand in the south. To the NNW immediately outside the hut circle, a stretch of drystone walling of apparently similar construction to the hut circle wall meanders away to disappear under the machair.

A damaged rotary quernstone of very dark, dense crystalline rock, with a maximum diameter of 290mm and having a central hourglass perforation, lay between the two walls in an area that appeared to have been deliberately floored with pebbles. A well-worn sandstone saddle quern, roughly rectangular with dimensions 300mm by 235mm and a keeled underside up to 145mm deep, had been built into the hut circle wall just north of the point where it emerged from the sand. (Both these finds were left in situ).
2.43 General Comments
The dates and functions of these two sites could not be precisely determined by this field survey, but the finding of the two quernstones is suggestive of the presence of an agriculturally-based settlement not later than the 1st-2nd centuries AD, when saddle querns are likely to have been superseded by the introduction of disc-type rotary querns in this region. Diet was evidently supplemented by shellfish, but whether this was normal or a fallback only in years of poor harvest is uncertain.
Presumably these settlements were ultimately buried by a severe sandstorm, though whether they were still occupied at the time or had already been abandoned, is speculative.
<1>

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 1905 5947 (24m by 23m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC15NE
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	EDDRACHILLIS

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Investigations/Events (0)

External Links (1)