Field boundary

The National Monuments Service's description

On a gentle SW-facing, lower slope of Sorrell Hill, overlooking a valley formed by Black Hill to the S. In an area of open mountain grazing outside modernly enclosed land. A complex of six hut sites (WI010-059001- to WI010-059005- and WI010-059008-), clearance cairns (WI010-059006-) and field boundary walls (WI010-059007-) lies within a relatively small and well-defined area, bounded by a small stream at the SE, and at the NW by a NE-SW field boundary, which is probably 19th century in date. At the SE end of the group an L-shaped stone wall is probably the remains of a modern sheep pen. Otherwise, the hut sites, clearance cairns and stone walls appear to be contemporary, and are likely to represent booleying or transhumance of an early date, perhaps during the Early Christian period. The hut sites are scattered in a roughly linear fashion along the edge of a well-defined scarp, where the ground falls away into boggy, wet ground. The associated stone walls (WI010-059007-) are quite low and in places difficult to define (Wth. 0.6-1m; av. H 0.2m). The walls may represent an attempt to clear the ground to facilitate cultivation as well as land divisions of some kind, but they are unlikely to have been designed to keep stock out of cultivated ground.

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Matt Kelleher

Date of upload: 18 December 2012