Hut site, Bunbinnia, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Bunbinnia, Co. Kerry

On the north-western slopes of Knocknabreeda, tucked between two tributaries of the Gearhameen river, there is a small stone structure that is easy to overlook and nearly impossible to date with certainty.

It measures just three metres by one and a half, its walls surviving to a height of roughly forty centimetres and a thickness of a full metre. The entrance, facing east, is less than half a metre wide. By any modern standard it is a tight, spare space, and yet it was built with some care: the corners are rounded rather than squared, a feature often associated with early medieval or prehistoric construction in Ireland, where drystone building traditions, using stones fitted together without mortar, produced structures of surprising durability.

The Iveragh Peninsula, on which Bunbinnia sits, is one of the more archaeologically layered parts of Kerry, and small hut sites of this kind are not unusual across its upland terrain. They may represent seasonal shelters used by people moving livestock to summer pasture, a practice known in Ireland as booleying, or they may belong to an earlier, more permanent pattern of settlement. The eastern-facing entrance is a detail worth noting: many early Irish structures were orientated to catch the morning light, though whether that was the intention here, or simply a practical response to the local topography between the two river tributaries, is not something the physical remains alone can answer.

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Pete F
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