Hut site, Uragh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Uragh, Co. Kerry

On a rough hillside above Lough Inchiquin in south-west Kerry, a small collapse of stone in the grass turns out to be the remains of a D-shaped hut, its walls long fallen but its outline still readable against the slope.

The structure measures 3.7 metres along its northwest to southeast axis, and what survives is a tumbled drystone wall roughly half a metre thick, with a straight northwestern side about two metres long. A drystone wall is exactly what it sounds like: stone laid without mortar, relying on the weight and fit of the material alone, which means it can collapse quietly over centuries while still leaving enough form to be mapped and studied.

The builders had to contend with the hillslope itself. The southwestern side of the hut was cut 0.6 metres into the uphill ground to level things out, while the eastern portion of the interior sits slightly raised, about 0.2 metres above the surrounding surface. This kind of careful ground preparation, digging into the slope on one side and building up on the other, is a practical signature of early settlement on uneven terrain throughout Ireland. The hut sits against the outer face of the southeastern arc of a nearby enclosure, which suggests it was not a standalone structure but part of a small cluster of activity. An adjoining hut site lies immediately to the northeast, reinforcing the sense of a modest settlement rather than a single isolated dwelling. Lough Inchiquin lies below, and the slope faces east, meaning the site would have caught morning light across the water, though whether that mattered to whoever built here is something the stones cannot say.

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Pete F
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