Hut site, Castlequarter, Co. Wicklow
Co. Wicklow |
Settlement Sites
On a steep south-facing slope in the Wicklow uplands, the remains of a small circular dwelling sit heavily overgrown, close enough to a neighbouring hut that the two are barely a metre apart.
This is not an isolated find but one of a cluster, arranged below the stone rampart of a hillfort, which suggests that people once lived here in some density, sheltering within or immediately beneath the defences of a larger fortified complex.
The site sits within the Spinans Hill hillfort complex, one of the more substantial prehistoric enclosures in County Wicklow, and below the specific rampart of the hillfort on Brusselstown Hill. A hillfort is typically a large enclosure defined by earthen or stone banks, usually dating to the Iron Age, though some were used across multiple periods. This particular hut is reasonably well preserved in outline: it measures roughly 4.7 metres north to south and 6.7 metres east to west, defined by a bank about 2.15 metres wide. The northeastern quadrant sits level with the ground outside, while the interior drops away, suggesting the floor was deliberately cut into the slope. A possible entrance, about 1.6 metres wide, faces southeast, an orientation that would have caught morning light and offered some shelter from prevailing westerly weather. The hut immediately to the north-northwest hints that these were not scattered or random shelters but part of a considered arrangement, perhaps a small community making use of the natural protection of the hillfort above them.