Hut site, Castlequarter, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Castlequarter, Co. Wicklow

On a steep south-south-westerly slope in County Wicklow, a cluster of ancient hut sites sits tucked just below the stone rampart of a hillfort, arranged on the hillside as though still waiting for the households that once occupied them.

This particular example is oval in plan, measuring roughly 7.5 metres along its longer axis and 4.6 metres across, its outline still legible in a low bank of moss and grass-covered boulders up to 1.6 metres wide. The interior remains remarkably flat despite the severity of the slope, a small terrace levelled by whoever chose this spot, and there is a probable entrance gap on the south-south-west side. Two field walls trail away from the western side of the structure, one running north-west and the other due north, suggesting that the life conducted here extended beyond the walls of the hut itself into some form of managed land.

The hut sits within the broader Spinans Hill hillfort complex in the Wicklow uplands, subordinate to the hillfort on Brusselstown Hill whose stone rampart crowns the ridge above. Hillforts are large enclosed sites, typically Iron Age in origin, defined by earthen or stone banks and thought to have served a range of functions, from defended settlements to places of assembly or ritual significance. The clustering of hut sites on the slopes immediately below such a rampart is a pattern seen elsewhere in Ireland, and it raises questions about the relationship between those living in the lower enclosures and whatever authority or activity was centred higher up the hill. This site is one of several such huts in the immediate area; a neighbouring example lies just one metre to the south-south-east, close enough that the two households, if that is what they were, would have been acutely aware of one another.

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Pete F
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