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MHG44771 - Spectacle Lochan, Rhum

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Ruined, in heath on steep hillslope, with SW aspect and altitude of 200-300m OD.
SMR card.

There are about seventeen structures disposed along a wall which runs for a distance of at least 750m from the coastal cliffs on the SW to the screens overlooking the Spectacle Lochan on the NW flank of Sron an t-Saighdeir. Some of the structures with entrances and internal wall-recesses are probably huts, but the purpose of the others is unknown. At two points walls drop down the hillside, while traces of two others are visible on the slopes below. At the SW end of the W (NM 306 986) there is a single two compartment hut. See NM39NW0061.
Soc Ant Scot: 1983: Arch Sites & Mons in Rhum: RCHAMS: PP24: No 181.

The largest group (of shielings) (NM 310 988) consists of 22 ruins: a long line of huts joined together by a complexity of walls and enclosures, which runs along the edge of an extensive scree slope ast an altitude of 300 m above sea level near Airigh na Maith-innse ("the sheiling of the good grazing). The average number of huts in a group is 3.8.
Love, J A: 1981: Shielings on the Isle of Rhum: Scottish Studies: Vol 25: P43.

NM39NW 5 309 986 to 314 991.

(Centred: NM 309 987) Complex of small drystone structures numbering at least seventeen, in a straggling line connected by a drystone wall which runs uphill from the edge of the cliff, crossing the 750' contour line. Most of the structures are circular, averaging 6' in internal diameter, with walls about 2' thick mostly still standing to 3' above present ground level and corbelled inwards in the upper courses.
Foundations of at least three more circular structures are visible on the downhill side of the wall some 10 to 20 yds from it. The interiors of these structures are in most cases masked by a mass of loose flat stones mixed with turf and heather. (Visible on RAF AP's 106G/Scot/UK53: 3052-3: 7.5.46, and D.A.P. Survey: 70/206/177)
G C David 1967

A tumbled drystone wall following an irregular course from the cliff edge at approximately NM 3140 9892, NE towards a small loch at NM 3140 9923. Well-defined near the SW end, the wall becomes less well-preserved in intermittent scree slopes as it progresses NE. Towards the NE end two or three walls spring from it and run downhill for 20 or 30m. At irregular intervals along the wall, small dry-stone cells, generally as described by David, are built against it. Others occur at varying distances from the wall. Few of the better-preserved cells show any sign of an entrance. The cells were not counted but estimated to be about 50 in number. Occasionally they are in clusters of three or four, and there are two or three larger irregularly-shaped less upstanding enclosures about 10m in diameter.
The purpose of the wall is to trap deer during a deer cull whilst the cells were for concealment from the animals. The structure is probably medieval. (See OSA for description of "saitts and tainchels".)
Visited by OS (AA) 14 May 1972

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NM 3104 9879 (30m by 30m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NM39NW
Civil Parish	SMALL ISLES
Geographical Area	LOCHABER

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