Hut site, Carrig, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the south-eastern flank of Moll's Gap, where the land drops away towards the head of the Finnihy river valley, a low ring of sod-covered stone marks the remains of a hut so small it could barely shelter two people standing upright.
The foundations are subcircular, measuring roughly 2.9 metres by 2.3 metres, with walls surviving to only about 30 centimetres in height and 50 centimetres thick. A metre-wide entrance opens to the east, the direction that would have caught the morning light and offered some shelter from the prevailing Atlantic weather rolling in from the west.
The rocky mountain terrain around Moll's Gap, in the heart of the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, is not the kind of landscape that invites lingering. It is exposed, windswept, and thinly soiled, which makes the presence of any man-made structure feel all the more deliberate. Hut sites of this kind are found across the uplands of Ireland and are notoriously difficult to date precisely without excavation. They may relate to seasonal occupation, perhaps associated with transhumance, the practice of moving livestock to higher grazing grounds during summer months, or they could be the remains of a more permanent shelter used by those working the land or tending flocks in earlier centuries. The dimensions here are modest even by the standards of such structures, suggesting a temporary or functional use rather than a permanent dwelling.