Hut site, Killoe, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Killoe, Co. Kerry

On the south-eastern slopes of Bentee, in the rough pasture of Killoe, there sits a small stone structure so overgrown and unassuming that it would be easy to walk past it without a second glance.

What gives it away, to anyone who looks closely, is the line of low upright slabs still visible at the base of the inner wall-face, the skeleton of a subtriangular hut that once provided shelter for a person or persons now entirely unknown.

The structure is modest by any measure: roughly 3.7 metres in diameter with walls just under a metre wide. A possible entrance, about a metre across, opens to the north. The subtriangular floor plan is unusual; most early hut sites on the Iveragh Peninsula tend toward circular or oval forms, and the angular footprint here may reflect the particular demands of the hillside terrain, the available stone, or the preferences of whoever built it. No date has been firmly established for its construction, and without excavation it is difficult to place it confidently in any particular period. Hut sites of broadly similar construction across Kerry range from the early medieval period back into prehistory, built by farmers, herders, or seasonal workers making use of upland grazing. The archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula, compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan and published by Cork University Press in 1996, recorded the site among hundreds of other monuments scattered across this densely layered landscape.

The site lies in rough pasture, which means the going underfoot is likely uneven and the structure itself will be partly concealed by vegetation depending on the season. The low slabs at the wall base are the clearest remaining feature, and they reward a careful look at ground level rather than from a distance.

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Pete F
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