Monument record MHG17667 - Loch Etive Head

NN14NW 3 centre 105 450.

Centred approx NN 105 450. About twenty charcoal-burning stances lie scattered along a steep hillside immediately above the pier at the head of Loch Etive at an altitude of 75 and 150 metres. The platforms are 'D' shaped or oval on plan measuring about 9 metres in width and 7 metres in depth, most of them having been formed by cutting and banking, their forward lips being supported by massive revetments of dry-stone masonry up to 1.7 metres in height. In some instances, traces of a drainage channel can be seen leading out of one side of the platform.
Although the platforms are now turf covered and, in many cases, overgrown with scrub birch, fragments of charcoal are visible immediately beneath the turf in those places where the surface has recently been disturbed. It is probable that many of the stances were constructed circa 1723, falling into disuse when the Glen Kinglass furnace (NN03NE 2) was closed down during the 1730s. There was probably a second and more protracted period of activity following the establishment of the Bonawe ironworks (NN03SW 5).
RCAHMS 1975, visited 1972

NN 105 449. Platform 9 of this group of 30 platforms was partially excavated. The platform was found to have been built at an unknown date to support a round timber framed structure 10m in diameter. The floor was level with the surface of the massive boulders forming the front lip. The outer ring of post holes was set between the boulders, many over 1m in depth. The inner ring of sockets was 5m in diameter and had a central socket. 75cm above the original floor the surface had been re-used for charcoal burning. Between the two levels soil had accumulated and consolidated to resemble the natural soil of the hillside. On one half of the platform this accumulated soil was swept away by a rush of hill wash but eventually the level of the platform was restored for charcoal burning. No artefacts were found.
E B Rennie 1987