Hut site, Baile Na Bhfionnúrach, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the lower western slopes of Brandon Mountain in County Kerry, a stone enclosure sits with a wide, unobstructed view in every direction.
Inside it, three circular huts have partially survived the centuries, their walls still legible in the landscape despite the slow work of weather and time. One of those huts, positioned where it meets the enclosure wall on the west-southwest side, retains only its western half, the portion that was built directly into the enclosure's own boundary. That survival is not coincidental: the shared wall protected it, while the rest of the structure was lost.
The surviving section shows a slightly corbelled construction, a technique in which stones are laid so that each course projects a little further inward than the one below, gradually closing the roof without the need for timber or mortar. Here, that wall stands to a maximum height of 1.45 metres and encloses a space roughly 2.7 metres in diameter. The site is recorded in the Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey compiled by J. Cuppage in 1986, published under the title 'Corca Dhuibhne' by Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne in Ballyferriter, which remains a foundational document for understanding the dense concentration of early remains across this part of the Dingle Peninsula. The place name, Baile na bhFionnúrach, belongs to a landscape that retains an unusual density of early medieval and prehistoric features, many of them clustered along the slopes that rise toward the summit of Brandon.