caithness-1911/05_089

Transcription

[Page] 24 HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

PARISH OF DUNNET.

flags. The greatest height in the centre from what appears to be the
original floor level is 6' 6". In the end of the W. wall, where the
curve of the back commences, about 3' above the present floor level,
is a small recess or ambry measuring 1' in height, 1 3" in breadth,
and 1' 6" in depth. The floor, which is said to be paved, is covered
with a deposit, nearly a foot in depth, of soil and food refuse which
has not been examined. There is a hole some 2' to 3' square in the
centre of the roof where the slabs have apparently fallen in. The
top of the roof in the interior is some 1' 6" to 2' below the summit
of the mound. At the extreme outer end of the entrance passage is
an oval depression, meansuring 27' x 14', which has not been excavated.
This monument may possible be the "Pict's House" noted in
1760 by Bishop Pococke, who gives the following account of it :-
"I found two cells, three yards apart, and the mouth about a yard
wide. The passage to one is destroyed, and, as I apprehended,
two yards of the other. It is three yards into a bend, and then two
yards more. The cell within is two yards wide and five yards long
in a sort of an oval, and at the entrance is a sett in of three-
quarters of a yard, and on the other side it forms the narrow end
of the oval, the sides are straight for a yard high, and set in for
another yard to three-quarters of a yard in width at top, which is
covered with flags. There are two or three small holes as convenient
recesses. The other cell is only a yard and a half high. At the
end is a hole, half a yard above the floor, about two feet six inches
high, three feet long, and three feet broad, lessening by a set-in of
three-quarters of a yard, and this was probably a chimney, as there
seemed to have been an opening to the top. Both the cells and
passages have without doubt been in some degree filled with earth,
for it is with difficulty any one can get in by the passages, which
are about a yard hight."
If the places are identical, only one "cell" is now apparent.
In the Statistical Account relating to the parish of Dunnet there
is a description evidently of the same construction. Its external
appearance is described as a "beautiful green mount about 8 or 9 feet
above the level of the adjacent field." Two entrances to the "cells"
about 8' asunder are said to have led from two outer intercommunica-
ting circular apartments of about 17' or 18' diameter.
See Pococke's Tours, p. 156 ; Stat. Acct., xi. p. 257.
O.S.M., CAITH., i. ("Brough"). Visited, 18th August 1910.

HUT CIRCLES AND ASSOCIATED MOUNDS.

66. Hut Circle, Links of Greenland. - Some 40 yards to the N. of
the mound No. 77 is a larger mound overgrown with bents, with a
hollow depression in the centre. Over all the mound measures in
diameter 55' from N. to S. by 66' from E. to W., and in elevation
about 4'. The depression, which is probably the interior of a hut
circle, measures some 30' in diameter. From it two or three thin
slabs protrude through the surface. A number of shells of limpets,
etc., have been turned up by the rabbits around the site.
O.S.M., CAITH., vi. ("Cairn"). Visited, 23rd August 1910.