Hut site, Annagh More, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Annagh More, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope in the rough heather pasture west of The Paps of Dana, the twin breast-shaped peaks that dominate the Kerry skyline and carry a strong association with the goddess Danu, a small circular stone hut sits half-absorbed into the hillside.

It measures just 2.4 metres in diameter, barely large enough for a person to sleep in, and its drystone wall, constructed without mortar in the manner typical of early Irish field architecture, still protrudes above the surface of the surrounding bog. What makes the structure quietly telling is the way its builders dealt with the slope: the northern portion of the interior was cut roughly half a metre down into the uphill ground, levelling the floor artificially so the space could actually be used. It is the kind of practical detail that tends to outlast everything else.

The hut is best preserved along its eastern and southern arc, where large stones remain visible in the lower course of the wall; rubble has scattered downslope over time. It does not stand alone. Another hut site lies approximately five metres to the west-southwest, and roughly forty metres to the north there is the trace of an enclosure, while a relict field wall, the ghost of a boundary that once organised this landscape for farming or grazing, survives about 150 metres to the north-northeast. Taken together, these features suggest a small cluster of activity rather than a single isolated shelter, though the date of occupation and the nature of that activity remain unspecified. The bog that now covers much of the area has preserved the remains while also obscuring the fuller picture of what this hillside once supported.

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Pete F
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