Hut site, Shrone More, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Shrone More, Co. Kerry

On the north-west-facing slopes of Knocknabro in County Kerry, a low grassy bank traces a D-shape in the rough pasture, marking the outline of a hut that has quietly outlasted almost everything that once surrounded it.

What makes the structure quietly interesting is the practical intelligence visible even in its remains. The builders compensated for the natural slope of the hillside by cutting into the uphill side to the east and raising the floor on the west, so that whoever lived or worked inside stood on a level surface. That kind of careful ground preparation, carried out in earth and stone rather than anything more permanent, speaks to a real investment of labour in what might otherwise look like a modest enclosure.

The hut measures roughly 3.6 metres east to west and has a straight eastern side running about 6 metres north to south, with the curved western arc completing the D-shape. The bank defining it is around 1.8 metres wide and survives to a height of approximately 0.6 metres, now softened under grass. One detail sets it apart from a purely constructed landscape: a glacial erratic, a boulder deposited by retreating ice long before any human occupation of the site, has been incorporated into the western arc of the bank. Rather than moving it or building around it, whoever raised the structure simply made it part of the wall. A low outer bank is also visible running from the south-west to the north-west of the hut, suggesting the original enclosure was slightly more elaborate than its present state implies.

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Pete F
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