Hut site, Lecarrow, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Lecarrow, Co. Mayo

On the eastern coast of an island in Co. Mayo, within four metres of a sheer north-facing cliff edge, a loose arc of stones barely breaks the surface of the grass.

There are roughly fourteen of them in all, protruding no more than thirty centimetres at their highest point, curving from west through north to south-east to describe an oval space no larger than a modest bedroom, approximately 1.8 metres east to west and two metres north to south. It would be easy to walk past without a second glance. What makes the spot quietly arresting is the combination of small details: the ground inside the arc is very slightly dished, as though the earth has settled differently there, and the grass within is a marginally darker shade than the surrounding turf.

The site sits inside what is believed to be a promontory fort, a class of enclosure in which a headland or clifftop spur is cut off by an earthwork or stone barrier, using the natural terrain as part of the defensive perimeter. The hut itself is identified by that curving arc of earthfast stones, meaning stones set directly into the ground rather than laid in courses, and the most persuasive section is a run of four nearly adjoining stones at the north-west, which appear to have been placed upright rather than simply left lying. Immediately to the south of the structure, a natural gully filled with loose stone runs along the ground, and roughly seven metres to the west-south-west sits an old turf stack, a reminder that this island was worked land well into more recent centuries. The cumulative picture is of a small, probably roofed shelter within a larger enclosed space on a wind-exposed clifftop, though precisely when it was built or used remains unclear.

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Pete F
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