Hut site, Leckaun, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Settlement Sites
In the townland of Leckaun in County Clare, a hut site sits on the archaeological record, noted and mapped but largely unexplained to the wider world.
Hut sites of this kind are among the most quietly prevalent yet least-discussed features of the Irish landscape, the flattened or slightly raised circular footprints of former dwellings, sometimes associated with booley farming, the seasonal practice of moving livestock to upland grazing, and sometimes with earlier permanent settlement. They are easy to overlook precisely because the ground rarely dramatises them.
Beyond its location in Leckaun and its classification as a hut site, the available detail on this particular monument is slim. Clare is a county with a dense and varied archaeological landscape, from the Burren's limestone pavements threaded with field systems and megalithic tombs to the river valleys of the east, and hut sites appear across many of these environments. Without further documentation it is difficult to say whether the Leckaun example is a solitary structure or part of a wider cluster, what period it belongs to, or how much survives at ground level.