Hut site, Foffanagh, Co. Donegal
On the southern slopes of Kinnagoe Hill in County Donegal, the weathered remnants of what appears to be a circular stone hut offer a glimpse into Ireland's ancient past.
Hut site, Foffanagh, Co. Donegal
The structure, measuring roughly 1.85 metres across internally, consists of a low drystone wall standing about half a metre high with walls nearly a metre thick. These substantial dimensions suggest this wasn’t merely a temporary shelter but rather a dwelling built to withstand the harsh Atlantic weather that sweeps across this exposed hillside terrace.
The hut doesn’t stand alone in this landscape; it’s part of a broader archaeological complex that hints at a small farming community. Another hut site lies 60 metres to the southwest, whilst several field clearance cairns, those telltale piles of stones gathered from worked land, can be found 30 metres to the northeast and east. The relationship between these features becomes clearer when you trace the partially heather-covered field walls that connect them. One wall runs directly onto the northern face of the hut before continuing eastward along the ridge base, following the natural contours of the terrace.
From this main wall, several other overgrown boundaries branch off, creating what archaeologists recognise as a small field system. These ancient divisions of the landscape, now softened by centuries of heather growth, would have once marked out cultivation plots or grazing areas for the families who called these stone huts home. Together with the neighbouring dwelling and the clearance cairns, they paint a picture of subsistence farming on these Donegal hills, where generations worked to coax crops from rocky soil and sheltered their livestock behind stone walls that still trace faint lines across the hillside today.





