Hut site, Cúm Dhá Stogha, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cúm Dhá Stogha, Co. Kerry

On the southern slopes of Knockavohaun, in the rocky upland terrain of Cúm Dhá Stogha on the Iveragh Peninsula, two ancient hut structures sit in various states of collapse.

What makes the pairing quietly arresting is the disparity in their scale. One is a small oval structure, just 2.4 metres by 1.6 metres, its inner basal row of upright slabs largely fallen. The other, a short distance upslope to the north, is a much larger subcircular hut, roughly 8.1 metres by 7.9 metres, built using drystone construction, a technique in which stones are stacked and fitted without mortar, relying on weight and friction alone to hold.

The smaller structure is barely the size of a modest garden shed. It is possible to imagine it as a shelter, a temporary refuge for someone working these high slopes, perhaps connected to seasonal grazing or the movement of animals to summer pasture, a practice historically known in Ireland as booleying. The larger hut, nearly the diameter of a roundhouse, suggests something more sustained, perhaps a more permanent habitation or a base for upland activity. Both survive only as foundations, the walls long since reduced to their lowest courses, but the outlines remain legible against the mountain ground. The site was documented as part of a comprehensive archaeological survey of South Kerry, which catalogued the extraordinary density of ancient remains across the Iveragh Peninsula.

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