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MHG9852 - Kilphedir Burn

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Full Description

NC91NE 30 992 198.
(Three) Enclosures (NR) OS 6"map, (1964)

On E side of Cille Pheadair burn, about 1 mile N of its junction with the Helmsdale River, is a group of three contiguous enclosures, two of which appear to have been cattle or sheep folds. A horn projects on W side of entrance to most easterly one. An opening has been broken through the banks of this and the northerly enclosure, apparently at a later date. Near the three enclosures are a dozen or so small mounds. Some 30 yards N, on the end of a slight knoll, is a cup-shaped hollow, with an opening to S, 10' in diameter and apparently lined with stones. Some 30 yards S is a circular enclosure with traces of an inner compartment.
RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909.

The three contiguous enclosures comprise a hut circle (A) an enclosure (B), and a semi-enclosed area. In the interior of the hut are traces of two small compartments. Some 40m W of hut A is another hut circle (C) that is almost certainly the last enclosure noted by the RCAHMS. The cup-shaped hollow could not be identified. The mounds are probably field clearance heaps.
Visited by OS (W D J) 20 May 1960.

There are three stone-walled houses (A-C) in association with a field system. The situation is rising moorland open to S. The huts are reduced and heather-covered but seem broadly similar.
'A' is 9m diameter inside a wall of main width 2m broadening to 3m at an obscure entrance from SSE. The ground to rear of the hut is partially enclosed on N and E sides, by a low scarp scooped from the ascending slope and joining to the NE arc of the hut.
'B' is 9.5m diameter internally. The wall has a general spread of 3m that increases to 4.5m at a clubbed entrance, 3m wide, from the S. A form of forecourt precedes the entrance, evidenced by a seemingly built-up and levelled crescentic area 4.5m x 3m, partially enclosed on S and W sides, by a low curving bank that connects in W of entrance.
'C' is 9m inside diameter. The wall, at a choked entrance, from the SSE, is spread to 3.5m but in NNW has been broken through, and elsewhere is vague.
The alleged traces of inner compartments in huts A and C are too tenuous to be conclusive. In slope some 90m N of hut C is a low depression, Approx 3.5m diameter, inside a vaguely suggested bank. No stone is apparent. This may be the cup-shaped hollow referred to but it seems natural or at best a surface quarry.
The field system occupying four hectares, is best distinguished by a stone-free close-cropped appearance marked with scattered field clearance heaps, except to N of hut B where there is an appreciable concentration. There are occasional substantial lynchets, and in the vicinity of the huts, indecisive signs of a pattern of field banks.
Re-urveyed at 1:10,560. Visited by OS (J M) 1 JUly 1976.

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Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 9920 1985 (216m by 290m) (3 map features)
Map sheet	NC91NE
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	KILDONAN

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