Hut site, Bridia, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Bridia, Co. Kerry

High on the northern slopes of Broaghnabinnia, in the Bridia valley of the Iveragh Peninsula, a small circle of stones sits on a wide mountain shelf, its walls barely reaching ankle height.

What remains is the foundation of a drystone circular hut, just 2.1 metres in diameter, with walls surviving to about 45 centimetres and built roughly 60 centimetres thick. Drystone construction means exactly that: no mortar, only carefully chosen and placed stone, a technique that has kept countless structures standing across the Irish uplands for centuries, even when reduced to their lowest courses. At this scale the hut would have sheltered one person, perhaps two, and almost certainly served a seasonal rather than permanent purpose.

The Iveragh Peninsula, which forms the largest of the great south-western fingers of land reaching into the Atlantic, has an unusually dense record of early settlement and transhumance, the practice of moving livestock to higher ground in summer. Structures like this one, small, round, and positioned on elevated ground with open views, are often associated with that pastoral rhythm, used by those accompanying cattle or sheep to upland grazing. The precise date of this particular hut is not recorded, but comparable sites on the peninsula range from the early medieval period back into prehistory. Its position on a broad natural terrace, the kind of feature that would have made a practical temporary camp, suggests it was chosen with a working knowledge of the landscape rather than by accident.

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Pete F
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