Hut site, Carrowhubbuck, Co. Sligo

Co. Sligo |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Carrowhubbuck, Co. Sligo

At the edge of a cliff on the Sligo coast, a low ring of sod-covered stones barely three to four metres across marks the outline of an ancient dwelling.

It is easy to miss, and that is partly what makes it worth considering. This small circular hut site sits within the south-western quadrant of a cliff-edge fort at Carrowhubbuck, a type of promontory enclosure in which natural coastal drops did much of the defensive work, with constructed ramparts completing the perimeter where the land did not fall away on its own.

The hut site is not alone. At least two others survive in the same south-western portion of the fort, and a possible fourth has been identified in the south-eastern quadrant. Together they suggest that this windswept clifftop was not merely a place of refuge or occasional use, but perhaps something closer to a small settlement, its inhabitants living within the protection of the enclosing fortification. The individual huts, each defined by nothing more dramatic than a collapsed bank of stone beneath a covering of turf, are the kind of remains that reward patience and a willingness to read a landscape slowly rather than at a glance.

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Pete F
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