Description

The monument comprises a single hut circle, a Bronze-Age domestic structure dating to the first or second millennium BC. It lies in rough moorland on a hillside 1225m ENE of Balnught.

The hut circle comprises a 3 m wide by 0.7m high circular bank enclosing a central area 8 m in diameter. An entrance (2.5m wide) is visible to the E, at either side of which the bank ends taper slightly to 2.5m wide. The hut circle is covered by up to 0.25m of peat. The outer face of the bank to the N is indistinct, as it is set into the slope of the hillside. Probing suggests that the bank is built with stone and turf and possibly has a stone facing.

The area to be scheduled is a circle, centred on the hut circle, to include the hut circle and an area around it within which evidence relating to its construction and use may survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

Cultural Significance

The monument's archaeological significance can be expressed as follows:

Intrinsic characteristics: A well-preserved hut circle on a hillside above the river Findhorn, the site has potential to further our understanding of prehistoric domestic structures. Associations with the surrounding field clearance heaps can provide information on landuse and economy. Hut circles like this date to the first or second millennium BC. Lack of cultivation and intensive landuse indicates that the potential exists for the preservation of archaeological deposits relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment. In addition, it is likely that deposits survive that could provide data relating to the later prehistoric environment.

The site has considerable potential to enhance understanding of later prehistoric roundhouses and the daily lives of the people who occupied them.

Contextual characteristics: This hut circle is situated on a sloping hillside adjacent to cultivable land, with views over the river below. As it is not a complex site, it lies undisturbed and thus offers potential to add value to the group as a whole. Comparing and contrasting the hut circle to other nearby sites of the same type or date can enable an understanding of how such monuments are positioned within the landscape and their relationships with one another.

National Importance

The monument is of national importance because it is an excellent example of an undisturbed single hut circle. It has potential to add to our knowledge of the monument type as a whole, given its level of preservation and association with the surrounding field clearance heaps. The capacity exists for this monument to form part of a wider study of the later prehistoric upland landscape. Its loss would impede our ability to understand the placing of such monuments within the landscape, as well as our knowledge of later prehistoric domestic structures and economy.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS record the site as NH84SE 7.

References:

RCAHMS 1978, THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES AND MONUMENTS OF NAIRN DISTRICT, HIGHLAND REGION, The archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland series No. 5, Edinburgh, p14, No. 90.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland