File:Carman Hill-fort, site of hut-circle - geograph.org.uk - 1348692.jpg

English: Carman Hill-fort: site of hut-circle This is the last in a series of ten linked items showing the structure of an ancient hill-fort on Carman Hill (for an in-depth discussion of its history, see 697526); see 1348609 for the first item in the series.

The other items in this series have mainly been looking at the various walls that outline the inner enclosure and the outer enclosure of the hill-fort. However, this photo shows the site of a hut-circle. In connection with Carman Hill-fort, the book "Archaeology Around Glasgow" (2007) says: "Up to 15 hut-circles – circular banks which indicate the positions of houses – have been identified within the enclosed area of the fort, but these can be difficult to spot. They indicate that a considerable population must once have lived on this exposed site".

The reason why the book says "up to" 15 is that some of the sites can be confidently identified as hut-circles, while others are more uncertain.

The hut-circle shown in this photograph is a grassy area that lies between the purplish foreground tufts of heather and a dry-stone wall that is visible in the middle distance. In order to make its location slightly easier to pick out, the photograph has been framed in such a way that the left-hand edge and right-hand edge of the hut-circle are more or less directly beneath the corresponding edges of the visible water of Carman Reservoir (which is prominent in the background). Look for a green area that is very similar in size and shape to the blue of the reservoir, and which is located directly beneath it, on the near side of the dry-stone wall.

It is hard to pick out the site in a photograph; although it isn't very much easier to spot when there in person, it could be seen to consist of a grassy round depression, surrounded by a low wall (covered in grass; no stones were visible). There was another hut-circle just a few metres to the north of the one shown here, although it was slightly less apparent, and, a few metres further north again, a yet fainter one.

The hut-circle shown in this image is therefore evidently the southernmost of a group of three; their positions are shown on the following satellite view, the dotted marker corresponding to the hut-circle that is shown in the photo: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=55.980182,-4.611211&spn=0.002635,0.006523&t=h&z=18&msid=111659464483026017583.00046c01ad387b1c2bb15

Aside from those three, the remaining possible hut-circle sites that have been identified are mainly located within the south-western side of the wall of the outer enclosure, although another possible group of three has been located at the northern end of the area enclosed between the two walls of the eastern side of the fort.

Previous: 1348676.