Hut site, Bunnamohaun, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Bunnamohaun, Co. Mayo

On the crest of a steep south-west-facing slope at Bunnamohaun, overlooking Gorteen and Beetle Head on Clare Island, two small stone huts sit so close together and so thoroughly merged with the ground that they are easy to miss entirely.

Their outlines are faint, their walls reduced to intermittent runs of angular stones and large earthfast boulders that barely register against the sod. Yet the pair are conjoined, sharing a layout that spans roughly 7.6 metres north-west to south-east in total, and their interiors remain flat and completely clear of stone, a detail that quietly suggests these spaces were once used and maintained rather than simply abandoned to collapse.

The northern hut is the better preserved of the two, measuring about 4.5 metres by 3.9 metres, and retains what appears to be an internal revetment, a low stone facing built against the interior wall to stabilise or line it, running from south-south-east around to south-west. Two large slabs and a smaller stone set on edge form the clearest part of this feature, with one slab still standing up to 0.45 metres high. A narrow gap of around 0.9 metres between the revetment lines may mark the entrance connecting the two huts. The southern hut is slightly more oval in plan and noticeably sparser in its stonework; internal wall faces are only just traceable in places, with stones protruding no more than 0.15 centimetres above the sod. Several gaps in its perimeter, at the east, south-east, and south-south-west, are each candidates for an original entrance, though the evidence does not settle the question. The site lies just three metres east of a separate hut and close to the ragged end of an old field wall, suggesting it formed part of a wider pattern of activity on this part of the island, the full extent of which remains unclear.

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Pete F
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