Monument record MHG9758 - Ulbster

(A: NC 9681 1810, B: NC 9676 1813) Hut Circles (NR).
OS 6"map, (1964)

Two stone-walled hut circles (A and B) were found during field work. Visited by OS (W D J) 17 May 1960.

This is a settlement now comprising four huts (A-D) within an associated field system, situated on a moorland slope facing north.
Huts A and B are similar and unusually well-preserved, which contrasts strongly with the reduced overgrown huts C and D. In each case the entrance is in the east arc.
'A' is 9.3 internal diameter within a wall 0.8m average height varying from 1.8m actual width to 2.3m at the entrance. This wall is faced internally with boulders set up with their flat side facing inwards; the interseces between the boulders are filled with smaller chockstones. The outer facing stones are noticeably smaller than the inner. The wall core appears to be entirely of rubble stones. At the inner end of the entrance are two opposing portal stones 0.8m apart and 1.1m high.
Hut B is 6.3m in diameter within a wall similar in construction to A, but 1.4m wide. The entrance is blocked, its position indicated by a looseness of the stone.
'C' and 'D' measure respectively 8.5m and 10.0m internal diameter; the former is visible as a low platform with residual walling around the rim, and the latter is best preserved in the south arc, where the presence of inner and outer facing stones indicate a wall breadth of 1.8m.
The field system, occupying four hectares, comprises a scatter of stone clearance heaps and occasional lynchets, but in the extreme NW side of the system is a complex of contiguous, irregularly-shaped fields, demarcated by boulder walls up to 1.5m high. Some of these fields contain clearance and are sub-divided by lynchets; one such division measures 30.0m by 30.0m. The construction of the field walls ie. a single line of boulders set on edge, indicates a hut circle association; their excellent state of preservation corresponds with that of huts A and B.
Surveyed at 1:10,560.
Visited by OS (J M) 7 July 1976.