Hut site, Doocarrig More, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
In a boggy corner of Doocarrig More, a low scatter of stones traces the outline of a structure so reduced by time that it barely registers as architecture at all.
What remains is a D-shaped hut, measuring just 1.6 metres north to south, its walls long since collapsed into a rough line of drystone that sits no higher than 0.4 metres above the ground. The larger base stones push up through the surface of the bog, and a dense covering of heather softens the whole thing into the landscape. It would be easy to walk past without a second glance.
The hut sits within the southern half of a wider enclosure, suggesting it was once part of a small, organised settlement rather than a solitary shelter. Drystone construction, in which walls are built from stacked stone without mortar, was common across early Irish agricultural and pastoral sites, and the straight southern wall, running about 2 metres east to west, hints at a purposeful layout even in its ruined state. The enclosure it belongs to points to a context of farming or seasonal grazing, the kind of modest, working landscape that once covered much of Kerry's uplands and is now largely absorbed into the bog.