Hut site, Knocknabro, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Knocknabro, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope above the valley of the Clydagh River in County Kerry, a low ridge of heather-covered stone traces the outline of a hut that has not been occupied for a very long time.

The shape is what makes it worth pausing over: not the usual circular form associated with ancient Irish field settlements, but a D-shape, with a straight southern wall running about 3.3 metres east to west and a curved rear wall completing the enclosure. The whole structure measures roughly 5.6 metres north to south. A gap in the western wall may be all that remains of a doorway.

The walls themselves are drystone, meaning they were built without mortar, fitted stone upon stone in a technique used across Ireland from prehistory well into the early modern period. They have long since collapsed to a height of around 0.3 metres and a thickness of about 0.6 metres, and the shallow bog that has formed over the hillside has crept up around them, leaving only the uppermost stones protruding above the surface. The hut does not sit in isolation. About 28 metres to the east-south-east there is a related enclosure, and immediately to the south runs a relict field wall, the remnant of a boundary that once divided this rough hill pasture into worked land. Together, these features suggest a small agricultural settlement that once made use of this sheltered, south-facing break in the slope, looking out over the river valley below.

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Pete F
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