A geo-physical survey of the hut circle site 2007 © HES
Reconstructed Iron Age Roundhouse © Whithorn Trust
Hut Circle in foreground, with Yarrows Loch behind
a Summary
Hut circles are the visible remains of prehistoric roundhouses. They are ubiquitous in the Scottish landscape, representing the dwellings of people who lived here in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Roundhouses were used as the principal domestic dwelling for over 2000 years, only being superceded by slightly different shaped buildings in the Pictish period.
The primary component of a roundhouse was the tall thatched roof, lying on timbers supported by a ring of posts in the middle of the building. Many excavation sites record the post-holes left in the ground after the post had rotted away over time. The roof stretched down and over a simple wall that could have been made of stone, turf, or sometimes wattle. The walls of a roundhouse therefore did not support the weight of the roof but were there to exclude the weather and contain the animals that would have been housed inside. Typically the entrance would have been in the east or south-east part of the building, away from the prevailing wet south-west winds. There would have been a central hearth, surrounded by the roof posts, with the animals, sleep areas and work areas outside the post ring. Sometimes a circular ditch ring can still be seen outside the walls, taking the rain from off the roof, and draining water away from the inside of the building.
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The remains of these roundhouses are often seen as circular depressions in the ground - the previous living area - usually surrounded by the low circular mound. The image above shows a single hut circle, covered in heather and enclosed within a post and wire fence. Now protected from grazing animals, the features seen in previous surveys are now obscured by exuberant vegetation. The image from Perth to the right shows a scattering of hut circles in a grazed landscape where they stand out more from the landscape.
Aerial view of the Hut Circle
Hut Circles in the Landscape © Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust
A Roundhouse in the making
A bit more...
Three hut-circles and a cairn are situated at the foot of a N-facing slope about 520m SSE of South Yarrows farmsteading (ND34SW 474). The northernmost hut-circle (YARROWS04 219) is situated on a heather-grown knoll within an area of old peat workings. It measures about 6m in diameter within a stony bank up to 1.8m in thickness and 0.4m in height. There is a possible entrance on the E and a large slab, possibly an inner facing-stone, is visible on the S.
The second hut-circle (YARROWS04 217) is situated 34m SSE of the first. It measures 8.6m from NE to SW by 7.6m transversely within a stony bank 2.4m in thickness and up to 0.7m in height. The entrance is on the ENE and a pile of rubble in the interior may be the remains of a later pen. The third hut-circle (YARROWS04 216), lies immediately SW of the second, and apparently abuts it, but the junction of the two banks was obscured by dense vegetation on the date of visit. This hut-circle measures 6.7m in diameter within a stony bank 2m in thickness and up to 0.4m in height, and there is an entrance on the E.
The cairn (YARROWS04 218) lies 8m W of the third hut-circle, and is situated on the leading edge of a heather-grown terrace overlooking a wet area to the NW. The cairn, which is disturbed at its centre, measures 6.6m from ENE to WSW by 5.3m transversely and up to 0.6m in height.
Visited by RCAHMS (AGCH) 29 June 2004
Further details and some images can be found by clicking the button to the right