Hut site, Gortloughra, Co. Cork

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Gortloughra, Co. Cork

On a north-facing slope in Gortloughra, County Cork, a small D-shaped enclosure sits in rough hill grazing among heather and rushes, its walls still standing over a metre high in places despite centuries of slow collapse.

That unusual shape, with a curving drystone wall on most sides and a straight wall forming the northern edge, is characteristic of a class of simple stone shelters found across upland Ireland, likely used by people working seasonal pasture or by those living at the margins of more settled agricultural land. The entrance, just 0.6 metres wide, faces south, a sensible orientation that would have offered some protection from prevailing winds on an otherwise exposed hillside terrace.

The structure measures 3.1 metres north to south, making it a compact space, barely enough for a few people to shelter comfortably. The drystone walls, built without mortar in the traditional manner of stacking fitted stones, are thickest at around 0.65 metres, and are best preserved from the south-west around to the north. The level interior is scattered with rubble from the sections that have given way over time. A second hut site of the same type lies approximately 25 metres to the south, suggesting this was not an isolated effort but part of a small cluster of activity in the same general area, though whether the two structures were contemporary or represent repeated use of a favoured location across different periods is not known.

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Pete F
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