Hut site, Annagh More, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Annagh More, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope in the hill pastures of Annagh More, a circular wall just half a metre high protrudes through the surface of the bog.

It is easy to overlook, half-swallowed by heather and collapsed in on itself, but the geometry of what lies beneath repays a closer look. The structure is only 2.3 metres in diameter, barely wide enough to shelter one or two people, and yet whoever built it thought carefully about comfort. The north side of the interior was cut 0.3 metres into the upslope, and the south side raised by 0.2 metres, so that the floor inside would sit level despite the gradient of the hill. That small act of engineering, carried out in drystone, a construction technique using unmortared stones fitted tightly together, is the detail that quietly insists someone lived or worked here, and expected to do so with some regularity.

The hut sits to the west of The Paps of Dana, the twin rounded summits in County Kerry whose association with the goddess Danu, or Anu, makes them among the more evocative landmarks on the Irish upland horizon. The surrounding landscape holds further traces of earlier occupation. A second hut site lies approximately 30 metres to the west, and the remains of a relict field wall survive around 50 metres to the north-north-east. Together they suggest a small cluster of activity rather than a single isolated shelter, the kind of seasonal or marginal land use, perhaps associated with transhumance or rough grazing, that has left only the faintest impressions across many Irish hillsides. The drystone wall is best preserved on its east to south arc, where it still stands at roughly 0.5 metres and protrudes noticeably above the bog surface, the rest having slumped or disappeared beneath the encroaching peat.

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Pete F
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