Field system, Gleann Seanchoirp, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Ritual/Ceremonial

Field system, Gleann Seanchoirp, Co. Kerry

Scattered across rough, rocky ground in Gleann Seanchoirp, a valley on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, are the remains of at least seven drystone structures arranged within the boundaries of an ancient field system.

What makes the complex quietly compelling is not any single building but the cumulative effect of so many small circular forms clustered together, most of them ruined to their foundations, a few retaining enough height to suggest something of their original shape. One structure still stands to 1.8 metres, its walls built in the corbelled technique, where stones are layered with each course projecting slightly inward until the roof closes over without mortar or timber. A rough sheep-shelter or pen abuts its northern wall, though the two were never directly connected, suggesting the site saw use across different periods and purposes.

The grouping was recorded and described by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, a systematic effort to document the extraordinary density of early remains in this part of Kerry. The structures vary considerably in size and state of preservation. The southernmost is a fairly substantial circle with an external diameter of six metres; moving northward, the sequence includes a pair of conjoined huts with diameters of roughly 2.5 and four metres, the corbelled hut mentioned above, a fragmentary arc of walling that is all that survives of another probable circle, a hut foundation surrounded by four very small subsidiary structures between 1.5 and two metres across, and a final small ruin to the east. The whole arrangement, spread across a relatively compact area of terrain, points to a settlement or seasonal farming encampment that made intensive use of a naturally bounded piece of ground, its occupants building and rebuilding in drystone as need and circumstance shifted over time.

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