Glen Derry
Kiln (Post Medieval)(Possible), Pen (Post Medieval), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Site Name Glen Derry
Classification Kiln (Post Medieval)(Possible), Pen (Post Medieval), Shieling Hut(S) (Post Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Mar Lodge Estate; Lochan Uaine
Canmore ID 81249
Site Number NO09NW 3
NGR NO 0355 9747
NGR Description Centred 0355 9747
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/81249
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Crathie And Braemar
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Kincardine And Deeside
- Former County Aberdeenshire
Field Visit (30 March 1993)
NO09NW 3 035 975
There are sixteen turf-and-stone walled huts, a turf pen and what may be a kiln on the floor of Glen Derry beyond the end of the made track. The huts are spread over 570m from N to S, but most are concentrated on either side of a small tributary of the Derry Burn. Two of the structures (MAR93 115-16) lie within a deer-fenced enclosure to the N of the group at NO 0351 9760 and NO 0350 9770 respectively, and two (MAR93 117-18) lie within a similar enclosure to the S at NO 0346 9728 and NO 0358 9719.
The huts appear to be subrectangular on plan and most are aligned between NW to SE and N to S with entrances on the W or SW. The huts range in length from 6.5m to 12m by between 3.6m and 7.5m in breadth over turf or turf-and-stone walls spread to between 1m and 2m in thickness and standing to as much as 0.5m in height, except for one (MAR93 116) which has rubble-faced walls 1m in thickness. At least two of the huts display robber-trenches leaving a bank of turf with a groove visible within it (MAR93 103, 113; MAR93 108 is possibly another). Two huts are subdivided into two compartments (MAR93 114 and 116), of which one has an outshot on one end (MAR93 116). A sequence is displayed in at least one instance where one hut appears to be built over the end of another (MAR93 108-9) and there is a midden heap outside the entrance of MAR93 108. What may be a kiln (MAR93 107) is set into the slope of a terrace a few metres NW of hut at NO 2351 9744 (MAR93 108); its bowl measures 2m in diameter by 0.5m in depth within grass-covered walls 1.1m in thickness with an opening for a flue to the W. The turf pen lies to the N of the main group and measures 14m from N to S by 6m transversely within turf banks 1.4m in thickness and 0.35m in height. Part of its W side is missing.
Farquharson's map of the Forrest of Mar (1703) (National Library of Scotland) shows several shielings in Glen Derry.
(MAR93 103-118)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 30th March 1993.
Note (26 October 1994)
This group of shieling-huts may correspond to the shieling-huts described by Ian Shepherd at NO 037 964, (NO09NW 1).
Information from RCAHMS (PMcK) 26 October 1994.