Monument record MHG53734 - Possible lambing pens, Eadar A' Chalda

Three sets of features were surveyed by Historic Assynt.

Feature O is a complex structure with five main components lying on the SE facing slope of a sheltered valley SE of the main farmstead. A sequence of oval foundations were recorded; they are all of the size, shape and construction associated with lambing pens and could thus be successive pens dating from Alexander MacKenzie’s introduction of sheep in the 1770’s.
It is also considered possible that this feature could represent a hut circle from the Bronze or Iron Ages robbed of its stone to create the pens.

Feature P lies SE of O and consists of what might be a small curving section of wall with a possible outer face, although the feature is very insubstantial. If the circuit suggested by the possible wall is completed it is almost exactly the same size as O, but it may never have been a built structure.

Feature Q consists of a roughly circular scatter of large stones and mounds approx 11m across close to a substantial field dyke on the SW facing slope of the same valley in which O and P are located, and below an eroding rock face. In the centre of the area of stones is a NW – SE aligned recess approximately 1.5m by 1m bounded by a mix of large and smaller stones and with a possible 1m long lintel at its SE end beyond which a hollow runs SE. Q could be the remains of a burial cairn, robbed to create the neighbouring field dyke and with the remains of a cist or passage in the centre. Alternatively it might be a largely destroyed small lambing pen in an area of naturally occurring fallen stones, some overgrown. <1>