Hut site, Kilmore, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
In a field in Kilmore, tucked into the North Kerry landscape, the ground gives itself away in a particular way: a raised interior, a broad encircling bank of earth and stone, and a gap to the south-east just wide enough to have once served as a deliberate entrance.
This is a univallate ringfort, meaning one enclosed by a single surrounding bank, of which thousands survive across Ireland. Most date to the early medieval period, roughly the fifth to twelfth centuries, and served as enclosed farmsteads rather than the military fortifications their name might suggest. What makes this one quietly worth attention is less dramatic than rarity: it is simply a well-preserved example of an ordinary life made legible in the ground.
The enclosing bank is five metres wide and rises to 1.2 metres on its outer face, dropping to around 0.8 metres above the interior floor. That interior sits higher than the surrounding land, which is a common feature of ringforts where centuries of occupation and accumulated material raised the ground level within. The entrance gap to the south-east measures 4.4 metres across. Immediately inside it, the ground becomes noticeably wet, suggesting the kind of persistent drainage problem that would have been a mundane concern for whoever lived here. In the north-west sector, a semi-circular feature curves inward toward the main bank; its own enclosing bank is 2.8 metres wide and 0.6 metres high. This internal feature is the element that gives the site its classification as a hut site, likely the remains of a subsidiary structure or dwelling set within the larger enclosure. The details come from the North Kerry Archaeological Survey, compiled by C. Toal and published in 1995.
A bohareen, a narrow rural lane, runs immediately to the west of the site, and the ringfort lies two fields east of a related monument in the same townland. The wet patch just inside the entrance is worth watching underfoot if the ground has had recent rain.