Monument record MHG10858 - Duchary Burn

NC80SE 25 8569 0491.

('A' NC 8570 0494) Triangular feature shown but not annotated.
OS 6"map, (1964)

On two separate shelves in a generally NE-facing slope in open moorland is a homestead ('A') and a circular stone-walled hut ('B') at NC 8569 0489 within a minor field system.
The homestead comprises a circular stone-walled hut with an oblong annexe connected to the hut in the NW with no wall division between the two, thereby forming a key-hole shape in plan. Both hut and annexe are at the same level and of similar construction having substantial walls, 2.4m thick and 0.7m high, faced inside and out with stones on edge, some of which are unusually large. The interior of the hut contains a quantity of stone protruding through the turf, many being earthfast and may indicate some form of internal structure. The entrance to the hut is from the ENE, with no separate entrance to the annexe.
Adjoining the hut on the SE side at a lower level is a roughly triangular structure with no connecting passage between the two. It is bounded by a wasted wall of uncertain width; at the SE extremity are five large boulders defining the outer face, similar to those of the hut. The entrance was probably from the N but this area appears to have been robbed for stones.
Hut 'B' is different in construction to the homestead. It measures 13.0m diameter within a low peat-covered wall spread to 2.0m wide. The interior is filled with peat to the level of the top of the wall. Outer facing stones and the occasional inner are exposed and two portal stones remain at the entrance in the SE arc.
Around the two dwellings is an area of cleared ground containing five scattered clearance heaps and some lynchets but no measurable field plots.
The area is partly enclosed by a contemporary orthostatic field wall which is overlaid in the S by a ruined 18/19 century dwelling and enclosure.
A burnt mound (NC80SE 27) occurs on the edge of the cleared ground. Surveyed at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (N K B) 19 February 1976.