Monument record MHG25182 - Achork

NC70SW 42 748 046.

(A: NC 74880448 and B: NC 748 0444) Undescribed circular features.
OS 1:10,000 map, (1971)

Centred on NC 748 046, along a moorland ridge, is a settlement of five hut circles (A-E) accompanied by a field system.
The huts are heather or turf covered and the walls collapsed; an entrance in each with the exception of hut E is in the SE on the line of the main axis where applicable. Of note is the robust built of 'A' and 'B' in comparison with the other huts.
'A' and 'B' are levelled into the slope and measure 12.0m by 11.0m and 12.5m by 11.0m respectively within wall-spreads of 4.0 to 5.0m and up to 1.1m high in the former, and up to 0.8m high in the latter. The entrance to hut A is flanked by a projecting horn, 4.0m long, on the S side. Attached to the E exterior of 'B' is the heather-obscured remains of an enclosure measuring some 13.0 by 9.0m across.
'C' and 'D' measure 9.0m and 10.0m diameter respectively within wall-spreads of 2.0m and 0.3m high on average. Several large boulders are visible in the exterior of hut D.
Hut 'E' outlies the main group of huts. It measures approximately 5.2m diameter inside a wall spread from 1.5 to 2.0m and 0.3m high; the entrance is no longer discernible.
The field system is evident in numerous stone clearance heaps, spaced on average from 7.0 to 20.0m apart, interspersed with occasional traces of lynchets and banks; no measurable plots are discernible. Some 120m W of hut E, on a rise, is an isolated scatter of further stone clearance heaps.
Strip cultivation intrudes in the SE extent of the field system.
Huts A and B revised at 1:10,000.
Surveyed at 1:10 000 huts C-E.
Visited by OS (J M) 11 March 1981.

Eight hut-circles, a cairn (NC70SW 42.02),three burnt mounds (NC70SW 42.03), three enclosures, a round-ended building, and a field-system and small cairns are spread over a distance of about 600m from NNW to SSE by 200m transversely on a ridge of ground surrounded by bog to the SW of Achork (for two additional cairns, see NC70SW 41). Variable depths of heather, from recent burn off to rank cover, make site definition difficult. The site is divided topographically into two parts, each occupying a rise, separated from one another by a shallow saddle.
The N group, comprising a cairn (NC70SW 42.02), two hut-circles, a round-ended building, an enclosure, and a field-system and small cairns, is dominated by the cairn, which surmounts a knoll on the crest of the rise. The field-system occupies the WNW slopes of the rise and includes a roughly circular enclosure about 10m in diameter (NC 7468 0487). The majority of the other structures lie to the S of the knoll but one of the hut-circles is situated on a spur below the steeper NE slope. This hut-circle (ROG95 434) is oval on plan and measures 8.5m from NNW to SSE by 7.8m transversely within stony banks, spread to 3.6m in thickness standing up to 1m in height, with an entrance on the SSE. The other hut-circle (ROG95 433) is smaller, but well-preserved, measuring 4.9m in diameter within a faced-rubble wall, 1.2m thick and 0.4m high, with an entrance on the NW. The round-ended building has two compartments and measures 6.2m from NE to SW by 1.8m tranversely within faced-rubble walls 0.75m thick and 0.3m high (ROG95 432).
The S group comprises six hut-circles, three burnt mounds (NC70SW 42.02), two enclosures, a field-system, and some small cairns. The W edge of the group is marked by two cairns on the crest of the rise (see NC70SW 41), with the rest of the site spread over the gentle S and E slopes. Four of the hut-circles are situated in close proximity (ROG95 428-431) SE of the crest, but the other two lie to the E on the fringes of the site (ROG95 425 and 435). The hut-circles measure up to 9m in diameter; one is unusually small (4.7m). The walls of the larger hut-circles comprise stone-faced banks ranging from 1.0m to 3.2m in thickness by at least 0.3m in height; two are remarkable for having walls in excess of 3m in thickness and 1m in height (ROG95 428-9), and all have entrances on the SE. The best preserved (ROG95 428) has a terrace around the NW arc of the interior 2.5m wide with a scoop by the entrance and there is a baffle on the W of the entrance. Another hut-circle (ROG95 431) has a baffle, in the form of a bank 7m long, which springs from the wall immediately N of the entrance. One of the hut-circles (ROG 429) has been built over a stretch of field bank.
The two oval enclosures measure 3.9m and 4.7m in length respectively by 3.6m and 4m in breadth within stony banks about 1.3m thick and about 0.3m high (ROG95 427 and 424 respectively).
Both field-systems comprise small rectilinear fields. The S system contains traces of rig cultivation and is relatively free of small cairns. Between the two field-systems there are a number of small cairns which measure up to 6m in diameter by 0.75m in height.
(ROG95 420, 423-436, 339)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 21 March 1995