Description

The monument is a relict agricultural landscape in which survive settlements of at least three periods, with elements of their associated farming systems and some burial cairns, situated on the heather and grass moorland of the Pitcarmick Estate, over an area of approximately 400 hectares.

There are the remains of at least 60 individual circular houses, representing settlement of the Bronze Age. There are also the remains of 9 long rectangular buildings with sunken floors, known as "Pitcarmick type" structures; most of these lie within concentrations of earlier round houses; their exact date is not known. Finally there are the remains of many rectangular buildings and shielings of the

kind associated with upland farming before the agricultural improvements of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In most cases the individual houses and settlement groups are surrounded by the remains of cultivation systems marked by stone clearance heaps, lynchets, and low stone and turf banks. Some elements of the field systems are clearly visible, in recently burned areas; others are imperfectly visible in older heather. There is clear evidence that beneath the peat and heather are extensive remains of cultivation in the form of "cord-rig" narrow ridging.

Within the area to be scheduled are the remains of 4 burial cairns, which may precede the earliest houses known in the area. The area to be scheduled is irregular; it measures a maximum of 1740m N to S and a maximum of 3140m E to W, as marked in red on the attached map. The line of existing hill tracks and the structure of existing bothies and other buildings are specifically excluded from the scheduling.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a complex of settlements and field systems of the prehistoric period overlain by at least two later complexes of settlements and field systems, which has the potential to enhance very considerably our understanding of the nature of the function and date of individual buildings, settlements and field systems, and groups of settlements and field systems. Of even greater significance is the exceptional potential that this relict landscape has to advance our understanding of the development of human settlement, the development of the farmed landscape and the development of human interaction with the natural environment.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NO 05 NE 17

Source: Historic Environment Scotland