Edward StewartAs part of my research into shieling practice we’ve now excavated three shieling huts, a still house and a stack stance in Glencoe, and - collaborating with recent department field school projects - a shieling hut and dairy hut in the Kilpatrick hills at Cochno.
Thomas Rees@EddieCStewart Can you tell the difference between #shieling huts and dairy huts through their upstanding form? Are there other form/function divisions in the huts you can recognise?
@caespititious I’d say yes - particularly those smaller (1-2m) huts/annexes sometimes found in the shieling cluster. Sometimes they’re beside or against a larger shieling or an enclosure.
The one we excavated had a row of stakeholes in the centre suggesting a wattle division within, the total absence of even flecks of charcoal, and the finding of sherds of stoneware cream jug all support the idea it’s a ‘dairy hut’.
Though I think context is key in this - particularly the where!
@caespititious on other divisions I’d say there are three clear ‘types’ of shieling hut based on size that maybe speaks to their functions.
1) Small (1.5-2.5m) huts often found in higher/upper grazings - sometimes described as shelters - probably relate to herders watching the non-dairy livestock.
2) medium (3m-6m) huts often found on the lower grazings and make up most shieling huts.
3) large (7m-9m) huts - might be the social space of the shieling cluster or linked to status of the owners?
1) Small (1.5-2.5m) huts often found in higher/upper grazings - sometimes described as shelters - probably relate to herders watching the non-dairy livestock.
2) medium (3m-6m) huts often found on the lower grazings and make up most shieling huts.
3) large (7m-9m) huts - might be the social space of the shieling cluster or linked to status of the owners?
@EddieCStewart Thanks for the explanation Eddie - I have fallen into the habit of thinking of #shieling huts as a generic single thing without thinking of differentiating form/function; very helpful!
@caespititious I’d be happy to chat more on shielings with you at some point - I think from some of the recent work done we can begin to unpick these different functions within the general mass of ‘huts’ and ‘mounds’.
@EddieCStewart I would love to have a chat at some point; we often locate (and protect) these sites through pre-afforestation forestry surveys. I suspect there are aspects of their setting that we are missing through not having a rich understanding of their function/role!