Hut site, Cloghernoosh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cloghernoosh, Co. Kerry

Two circular stone structures sit side by side on a natural ledge above Lough Callee, in the steep-sided valley between Brassel and Feabrahy mountains on the Iveragh Peninsula.

What makes them quietly odd is the relationship between them: they are conjoined, built up against one another, yet there is no internal passage connecting them. The smaller of the two, measuring around five metres across, has its own independent entrance facing east, roughly one and a half metres wide. Whatever arrangement once existed between the occupants of these two spaces, it did not involve a shared doorway.

The structures were built using drystone construction, a technique in which stones are laid without mortar, relying on careful placement and weight for stability. Their builders incorporated sections of natural rock outcrop directly into the foundations, making use of what the landscape offered rather than importing material to the site. The walls survive to a height of about 0.6 metres and are roughly 1.5 metres thick, suggesting they were once considerably taller. A short distance to the north, an early field wall runs for about fifty metres before disappearing into boggy pasture, hinting that the surrounding land was once organised and worked. Together, the hut site and the field wall point to a period when this high valley, remote and wind-scoured as it now feels, supported some form of settled or seasonal habitation. The survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, published by Cork University Press in 1996, recorded the site in detail, noting both the dimensions and the unusual paired arrangement of the structures.

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