Monument record MHG12804 - Achinduich

(A: NC 5826 0092) Hut circle (NR). (NC 582 010) Field System (NR).
OS 1:10,000 map, (1970)

A hut circle (A) and an associated field system were found during ground investigation.
Visited by OS (R D L) 25 June 1963.

Centred at NC 582 009, on a west-facing hill slope in open moorland, is a settlement of six stone-walled hut circles (A-F) within an associated field system, five additional huts having been found. The huts are set into the slope and survive mainly as oval platforms, the walls being much reduced, and obscured by peat and heather, so that little structural detail is visible. The entrance gaps where discernible occur in the south arc on the longer axis. Huts A-D appear similar varying in internal size from 11.5m N-S by 10.5m E-W to 15.0m N-S by 13.0m E-W. 'A' is the best-preserved with a wall, 1.0m high, tumbled and spread to 2.5m broad. 'E' and 'F' are smaller, measuring internally 8.0m N-S by 7.0m E-W and 6.5m N-S by 5.5m E-W respectively within walls of indeterminate width. The entrance to 'E' is mutilated and widened to 4.0m. A lynchet extends southwards from the east side of the entrance to hut F.
The field system, occupying six hectares, is well-preserved, and comprises lynchets, linear clearance and stone clearance heaps, which define a number of measurable cultivation plots, varying from 45.0m by 20.0m to 15.0m by 10.0m, which are terraced into the hillside. Narrow rig encroaches on the system on the SW side.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (J M) 22 July 1976.

NC 5820 0107 Survey in 1988 identified two adjacent circular turf banks. One was almost certainly the penannular bank of a type of house that has been dated at Lairg to between 1800 and 1200 cal BC; the second was not so easily classified because no clear entrance could be identified. In the course of the roadworks associated with the upgrading of the A836, the sub-surface character of the first site was observed as it was removed by the road engineers. The second site was treated differently because of its nonconformity to the established classes of monuments. After stripping topsoil by machine, a rapid excavation was instituted which revealed a stone-filled, penannular ditch some 1.5m deep by up to 3m wide. This enclosed an area 8 x 6.5m, close to the centre of which were two burials. The first consisted of a shallow pit within which an inverted urn contained a well-preserved human cremation. The second burial consisted only of a fused mass of cremated human bone without a burial vessel. Access to the enclosed burial space was via a narrow causeway across the ditch. A single substantial post-hole at the outer limit of the causeway possibly indicates a gate at this point. The weathered state of the subsoil sub-surface within this putative gateway indicates that the access route had been frequently used. The monuments were later encircled by a substantial turf bank at which time the entrance was permanently closed.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland
AOC (Scotland) LTD 1996