caithness-1911/05_041

Transcription

xxxviii -- HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

bases of Ben Freiceadain and Ben Dorrery in Reay and Halkirk
are several others. Smaller enclosures, built against the bank of a
larger circle and adjacent to the entrance, were met with several
times, and in one instance a double circle was noticed forming a
figure 8, the inner enclosure entering through the back of the other
(No. 125). The hut circle (No. 357, fig. 20) situated at the base of
Ben Freiceadain, illustrates a plan not infrequently observed in
Sutherland.* Its main features are the segmental wall dividing
the interior, and the thickening of the wall on either side of the
entrance so as to form a passage. There is one exceptional con-
struction (No. 356) situated near Brawlbin, which, though without
parallel in Caithness, seems to find its analogue in Sutherland.† It
appears to be a solid building, with a diameter of some 45', having
chambers within it opening off a narrow passage which curves around
the interior.
In a few instances hut circles were observed connected with larger
enclosures (Nos. 244 and 245), as was frequently the case in the
neighbouring county, but here such association was exceptional.
The small mounds of earth and stone, with a diameter of from 12' to
26', presumed to be sepulchral, which occur so frequently in close
proximity to hut circles in Sutherland, were more rarely met with in
Caithness. They were, however, observed in a number of instances,
e.g. on Warehouse Hill (No. 225), by the Berriedale Water
(No. 231), and near Ulbster (No. 354), situated adjacent to hut
circles.
A number of oblong structures with rounded ends are the
remains of shieling bothies connected with the practices of farming
in former days. They are to be found in the upland part of the
county, usually situated on low hillocks in a sheltered hollow by
the side of a burn. The booth consisted of a dwelling apartment
and a place for storing the milk vessels, while there was in addition
a small fold to keep the calves separated from the cows during the
night. The women and girls went up yearly to the shielings with
the cows about midsummer, and there remained, making butter and
cheese for a month or six weeks, while the hill pasture was good.
The practice had fallen into disuse by the end of the 18th century.‡

EARTH-HOUSES.

Only three earth-houses came under observation in the county,
of which two were in the Strath of Langwell (Nos. 246 and 247)
in Latheron Parish, and one was near Ham (No. 65) in Dunnet
parish. The former are both imperfect, but are of the simple gallery
type of which a number of instances occur in the adjacent Strath
of Kildonan in Sutherland. One of them (No. 247) is situated
among the foundations of crofters' houses. The earth-house near Ham is of a
different class. Instead of being beneath the natural surface of the
ground, it occupies the centre of a large artificial mound reached by a
low and narrow entrance passage opening off an oval depression which

*See Inventory of the Monuments of Sutherland, No. 512, fig, 75.
† Ibid., Nos. 429 and 500.
‡ See General View of the Agriculture of Caithness (1812), p. 145.

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