Hut site, Tullanree, Co. Donegal

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Tullanree, Co. Donegal

On a high rocky knoll in Tullanree, County Donegal, sits the remains of an ancient stone structure that offers a glimpse into Ireland's distant past.

This subcircular enclosure, catalogued as DG011-043, consists of a collapsed stone wall that still stands up to three quarters of a metre high in places. The wall itself showcases classic dry stone construction techniques, with two outer facings built from large stones and a core filled with smaller rubble. A gap in the southwestern section likely marks where the original entrance once stood.

The interior holds even more intriguing features. Against the northern wall, archaeologists have identified two adjoining subcircular stone foundations, designated as DG011-043001 and DG011-043002. The larger of these measures six metres across, whilst the smaller structure connects to it at the western end. These foundations likely represent the remains of ancient hut sites, where people once lived, worked, and sheltered from the Atlantic weather that sweeps across Donegal.

The site's elevated position on the knoll wasn't chosen by chance; such locations offered defensive advantages and good visibility across the surrounding landscape. Though time and weather have reduced these structures to their foundations, they remain valuable archaeological evidence of how people lived in this part of Ireland centuries, if not millennia, ago. The original survey work documenting this site was carried out as part of the comprehensive Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, compiled by Brian Lacey and his team in 1983, with updates added as recently as 2008.

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