Print

MHG9962 - Hut circle - Gylable Burn ('A')

Summary

A hut circle near the Gylable Burn.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

A hut circle near the Gylable Burn. One of three recorded at this location by the OS. Originally recorded as hut circle 'A'. See MHG63918 for 'B' and MHG63920 for 'C'.

At NC 946 173 on a shelf in a NE-facing hillside is a settlement of three hut circles (A-C) within a minor field system. Hut A is small and overgrown with peat and heather; it is 7.0m internal diameter within a wall spread to 2.0m broad all round. The entrance gap is in the SE arc. Huts B and C are similar in size and character, each measuring internally 10.0m by 9.0m, with the entrances in the longer axis in the NE and E respectively. The huts are set into a gentle slope with walls spread to 2.0m broad. Some outer revetting stones occur in hut C, but apart from this no structural details are visible.
The only evidence of associated cultivation is about six stone clearance heaps in broken ground; no plots can be seen.
Surveyed at 1:10,560.
Visited by OS (N K B) 18 May 1976.

A forestry creation project where ploughing had caused damage to some of the known archaeological sites prompted survey over the unploughed area east of Kilearnan Hill led by J Barber in Nov 1982. Simple fieldwalking showed that the sites were concentrated in the unploughed central area between the Gylable and Oulmsdale Burns. This was gridded in 100 m squares and the survey was carried out on 50 m squares extrapolated from the grid. This hut circle was included within the survey area.

The likely sale of the whole Kilearnan plot of land and the consequent possibility of losing the protected areas prompted a five-week excavation in late July and August 1983. Due to the number of monuments involved and the time allocated to the project, this was treated as an extension of the sampling exercise begun the previous year. It was intended, with minimal excavation, to retrieve as much information as possible about the sites on the hillside in terms of form, dating or date range, and the environment current during their use. This hut circle (designated 'Hut 2') was chosen for partial excavation. Before excavation, despite a thick covering of heather, the site appeared to be dished internally. Large granite blocks coincided with a slight depression in the circuit of the bank indicating the presence of an entrance in the north-east quadrant rather than in the south-east as stated originally by the OS.

When compared with Hut 1 (see MHG63920), this structure appeared to be more probably a domestic structure, although in this case the finds comprised only a few chips of flint, quartz and jasper, and two serrated flakes, and did not aid that interpretation. As with Hut 1, the physical evidence for roof-support posts was slight, although here the differential weathering of the paving implied that the flagstones in the interior were protected from the elements by a roof. This proposed dating for the use of the hut was tested by obtaining a radiocarbon date on charcoal from the spread around the hearth area (F223). The result of 1380-930 cal BC (GU-1919) placed the hut in the mid to later Bronze Age. <1>

The hut circle was Scheduled with other monuments in the vicinity in 1988.

Following re-assessment, the Scheduling was revoked by Historic Environment Scotland in 2016. <2>

The site is visible in vertical aerial photographs taken in 2020 and 2023. Its position, however, is somewhat different to where it is shown on modern OS mapping, being c.25m to the north-northwest. <3>

Sources/Archives (4)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 9459 1730 (24m by 23m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC91NW
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	KILDONAN

Finds (0)

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Investigations/Events (1)

External Links (2)