Hut site, Erneen, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Erneen, Co. Kerry

On a north-facing slope in Erneen, in the rough hill pasture of south-west Kerry, two small circular structures sit roughly fourteen metres apart, their drystone walls still just visible above the surface of the surrounding bog.

The more closely documented of the pair is modest almost to the point of invisibility: a circular hut site only two metres in diameter, its collapsed drystone walling running roughly south-east to north-west, with a low heather-covered bank completing the circuit on the opposite side. What makes it quietly remarkable is precisely its scale and setting, a deliberately sheltered hollow on an exposed hillside, with a river valley opening out below.

Drystone construction, where stones are laid without mortar and rely entirely on careful arrangement for their stability, is one of the oldest and most widespread building traditions in Ireland. Structures like these are notoriously difficult to date without excavation, but their form and placement in upland bog pasture are consistent with the kinds of seasonal or temporary shelters used by people working at a remove from permanent settlement, whether for herding, tillage on marginal ground, or other purposes that drew people into the hills. The fact that the walls here still protrude above the bog surface suggests the surrounding land has gradually become wetter over time, with the bog slowly encroaching on what was once workable, or at least usable, terrain. The second hut site just to the north-north-east adds a further layer of interest; two such structures in close proximity suggest this hollow was not simply a chance stopping point but a place returned to, or shared.

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Pete F
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