Hut site, Kilbragh, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Settlement Sites
In a field at Kilbragh in County Tipperary, a shallow circular depression in the ground marks what was once a small stone structure.
Six metres across, its walls have long since collapsed into low, sod-covered mounds of rubble, the inner face barely visible above the ground and the outer side rising only half a metre. Loose, moss-covered stones are scattered across both the interior and the surrounding area, and the floor of the structure dips gently inward from all sides, forming a small bowl at its centre. A possible entrance opening faces the north-north-east.
The hut sits on the north-western berm of a concentric enclosure, tucked against the inner face of the enclosure's outer bank. A concentric enclosure is a type of ringfort or enclosed settlement featuring two or more roughly circular banks arranged one inside the other, and the positioning of this hut within that outer ring suggests it was built as part of the same organised use of the space, perhaps for sleeping, storage, or shelter for animals. The site was formally identified and recorded during a field inspection carried out in February 2007. By that point, the wall had already been reduced to little more than a low, grass-covered ridge of collapsed stone, but its circular plan remained readable on the ground.