Monument record MHG28060 - Cnoc na h-Airde

NC70NW 37.01 7417 0545

Two adjacent hut circles (A and B, at NC 7417 0545 and NC 7415 0545 respectively) at the north-west foot of Cnoc na h-Airde, and an individual hut circle (C, at NC 7451 0517) on the lower south-east slopes of the same hill are linked by an associated field system. Huts B and C are newly located. The three huts are of similar build and are heather and turf-covered.
'A' measures 9.5 by 8.5m within a wall spread to 3.0m and up to 0.8m high; a possible entrance now blocked by tumble is in the SSW, the line of the main axis.
'B' measures 8.0 by 7.0m within a wall spread to 2.5m and up to 0.3m high; the entrance is in the S, the line of the main axis.
'C' measures 9.0m diameter inside a wall spread to 3.0m and up to 0.4m high; the entrance is in the SE.
Outside the hut in the E on a marginally lower level a well-defined arc of banking or heather-covered walling, 3.0m wide and, in the north, up to 0.8m high, indicates an adjoining enclosure or hut approximately 11.0 by 9.0m internally.
Revised at 1:10 000
Visited by OS (J M) 30 April 1981.

The six hut-circles on Cnoc na h-Airde are situated on a broad terrace which runs around the NW, E and S sides of the hillock. Four (ROG95 255, 256, 260, 266) are relatively uniform, measuring between 8m and 10.3m in diameter within a faced bank spread up to 2.1m in thickness and 1.2m in height. The other two (ROG95 265, 268) are much smaller, measuring 5.5m in diameter within a faced bank up to 1.4m in thickness and 0.5m in height. The position of the entrance is visible in two of the hut-circles - on the ESE (ROG95 268) and SE (ROG95 266). The centre of the interior of the latter hut-circle is dished, leaving a berm about 2.5m across between the edge of the scooped area and the hut-circle wall. Immediately to the E of this hut-circle, there is a platform about 10m in diameter which may be the remains of an earlier hut-circle. Phasing is visible in three of the other hut-circles: two (ROG95 260, 265) are overlain by the footings of at least one subrectangular building or hut; the third (ROG95 268) has a heap of stones piled against its wall.

ROG95 255, NC 7417 0545, OS'A'
ROG95 256, NC 7415 0545, OS'B'
ROG95 266, NC 7450 0517, OS'C'
ROG95 260, NC 7429 0540
ROG95 265, NC 7444 0521
ROG95 268, NC 7445 0530

(ROG95 255-6, 260, 265-6, 268)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 9 May 1995