Hut site, Killoe, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Killoe, Co. Kerry

In a mountain valley on the Iveragh Peninsula, a small ring of upright stone slabs sits just three metres north of a prehistoric wedge-tomb, the two structures close enough together that any past inhabitant of one would have been in daily sight of the other.

The hut site at Killoe measures roughly 4.1 by 3.7 metres across, a subcircular arrangement of standing stones wrapped intermittently by a low mound of peat. Its entrance faces northeast, marked by two flanking uprights, and tucked into the southwest of its interior is what appears to be a sheepfold, suggesting the space was used for sheltering animals as much as people.

The site occupies the northern side of the valley that runs between Bentee and Aghatubrid mountains, a landscape that preserves several layers of human activity. The proximity to the wedge-tomb is striking. Wedge tombs are megalithic burial monuments built during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, typically consisting of a tapering stone gallery covered by a capstone, and they are found in considerable numbers across the south and west of Ireland. Whether the hut was deliberately placed near the older tomb or simply happened to occupy the same natural shelf of valley floor is impossible to say, but the coincidence is the kind of thing that makes this corner of Kerry feel quietly loaded. The peat mound encircling the slabs may have accumulated over a long period, partly natural, partly the result of the structure being used and reused across different eras.

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Pete F
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