Monument record MHG12246 - Sub-Circular Enclosure, Dubharlainn

NC12NW 2 1221 2899.

At NC 1221 2899, occupying fully a ledge in a S-facing hillside, is an enclosure. Slightly sub-oval in shape it measures 10.5 m N-S by 9.5 m across a levelled interior within a ragged, heather-covered wall up to 0.3 m high and something over 1.0 m estimated thickness; an inconclusive break in the SE arc may indicate an entrance. An earthfast slab is distinguished in the inner facing of the enclosure wall and there is some augmentation by living rock of the wall generally. Below the enclosure and fringing flattish, stone-free ground are several mounds of cleared stone and the peat-silted course of a sinuous wall; on the downslope beyond strip cultivation is evident and at the bottom on a damp shelf is a small extent of 'lazy-beds'.
The enclosure is not considered to be a hut circle, the wall being relatively slim with no sign of a pronounced entrance position. However, the site overall bears a mature peat and heather growth suggesting that the enclosure and surrounding cultivation predates the nearby farmstead of Dubharlainn, which was abandoned in the mid to late 19th century (see NC12NW 3).
Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (J M) 19 August 1980.