Monument record MHG28803 - Allt Ballach

NH 60SW 4 6398 0331 and 6420 0324

There are at least thirty-three shieling huts disposed in two loose groups (NH 6398 0331, thirteen huts, (KING95 202-14); NH 6420 0324, twenty huts, (KING95 215-34)) at about 700m OD on the floor of a corrie immediately below the source of the Allt Ballach. The huts range in length from 1.7m to 5.4m and in breadth from 1.4m to 2.5m internally. Except for one hut (KING95 234) which appears to have been turf built, the huts have boulder or stone banks, measuring up to 1.5m in thickness and 0.9m in height. Fragmentary remains of what may have been further turf huts lie along the ridge to the SW the south-westernmost hut (KING95 212).
In most cases where the position of the entrance is visible, it lies in a side wall (KING95 207-14, 218, 220, 223-6, 229-34), but two huts (KING95 203, 204) have the entrance in an end wall. One hut (KING95 222) appears to have entrances in both sides. Four of the huts (KING95 207, 210, 212, 231) have an outshot, and a pen has been inserted into the interior of two further huts (KING95 224, 226). A baffle wall protects the entrance of one hut (KING95 212) which also has an upright stone, presumably a backing for a hearth, in the centre of the interior, a feature shared with another hut (KING95 225). There is a grass-grown midden outside the entrance of one hut.
(KING95 202-34)
Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 27 September 1995