Hut site, Canburrin, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a natural ledge at Canburrin in County Kerry, a cluster of small stone structures sits below a larger complex on the slope above, the two groups forming what appears to have been a deliberate arrangement of settlement across the hillside.
In total there are three huts and two circular concentrations of stone that may represent further huts now fallen in on themselves, their original shapes just legible beneath the accumulated debris of centuries.
One of the better-preserved examples is a rectangular hut, overgrown but still traceable, measuring roughly 2.8 metres by 2.5 metres. Its walls incorporate upright stones alongside natural outcrops of rock, a practical approach common in early Irish settlement where builders worked with the landscape rather than against it. The entrance faces east, and there are traces of what may be two small annexes extending to the northeast and southwest. These annexes, if that is what they are, hint at a modest but purposeful organisation of internal and external space. The site was documented as part of the archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula compiled by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, published by Cork University Press in 1996, which systematically recorded the remarkable density of early remains across this part of south Kerry.