

Another cairn.... Carn Richard looms on the horizon like Mother Hen.
A cairn between settlement and Carn Richard. One of many, seemingly feature too much ‘structure’ to be clearance?
The River Helmsdale flows beneath. This settlement’s raison d’etre. Pardon my French.
Think this is the western...
The eastern hut circle. Note my car below.... easy access, but a bit of an uphill slog to Carn Richard (albeit short). At least I thought so. Needless to say I thought this ancient settlement was Carn Richard from the road.... I’ve no problem with errors such as that.
Looking toward the eastern hut circle. I swear I could almost feel the presence of ‘those that went before’ here. Almost. The Helmsdale is much more elegant than The Fat Boys twisting its way to Kinbrace. Enough to drive a Roman engineer ‘round the bend.
It was tempting to imagine the people who lived in this, the western of the two large hut circles here, built/helped build the nearby Carn Richard chambered cairn. Not sure of the chronology, though?
Located near to the fine chambered cairn Carn Richard this settlement, well positioned overlooking the River Helmsdale, consists of seven round houses, two of which are particularly well preserved... and an enclosure to boot.
The site was “found during field investigation in 1961 on a south facing hill-slope where RCAHM in 1909 had reported a field system. A further hut at NC 83773170 was discovered in 1968”
[RCAHM 1911; OS (WDJ, 1961; AA, 1968]