Hut site, Curragh More, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a stretch of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, a low ring of dry-laid stone sits in the landscape at Curragh More, easy to miss and easier still to misread as a natural feature.
It is the ruin of a subcircular hut, built without mortar, its walls still traceable to a height of about 65 centimetres and a thickness of over a metre, enclosing an interior space measuring roughly 5.1 metres by 3.7 metres. The proportions are intimate, the kind of structure that held one family, or perhaps a seasonal shelter for someone working the land or tending animals on the higher ground.
Drystone construction of this kind, where stones are carefully selected and stacked to hold their own weight without any binding material, is one of the oldest and most enduring building traditions in Ireland. The technique requires patience and a good eye for fitting irregular shapes, and structures built this way can be remarkably durable. The Curragh More hut is catalogued in the archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, published by Cork University Press in 1996, which remains one of the more thorough regional surveys of its kind in Ireland. The site lies approximately 50 metres east of a related monument, suggesting this part of the landscape was used across a period of time and for purposes that may have shifted between domestic, agricultural, and pastoral use.