Hut site, Middlequarter, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Settlement Sites
A small stone enclosure on a Tipperary hillside raises an immediate question: how did people get in?
The structure at Middlequarter sits on a gradual north-east-facing slope in the Knockmealdown mountains, tucked into a river valley between Knocknagearagh hill to the north and Knockardbounce hill to the south. Roughly circular in plan, it measures just over four metres across internally, its low sandstone rubble wall still standing to a modest height. What distinguishes it, apart from its compact scale, is the complete absence of any obvious entrance. Whether that gap has simply been lost to time and collapse, or whether access was always arranged in some less permanent way, remains an open question.
The site does not stand alone. In 1996, Diarmuid O'Keeffe identified a substantial complex spread across this same ridge, comprising multiple enclosures, several hut sites, clearance cairns, a field system, and a possible ring-cairn. Clearance cairns are exactly what they sound like: piles of stone gathered from fields to make cultivation or grazing easier, and their presence alongside a field system suggests that people were not merely sheltering here but working the land. The hut site itself sits only twelve metres from another possible hut site to the north-north-west. Together, these remains point to a community making sustained, organised use of what is now a quiet upland landscape. The sandstone rubble construction is typical of what the local geology offered, dressed into walls that were never especially tall but were solid enough to survive centuries of exposure on an open slope.