Hut site, Ros An Locha, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Settlement Sites
On the south-facing slopes of Bealick, in the rough mountain grazing of Ros An Locha, a small D-shaped hollow sits so quietly in the hillside that it could easily be dismissed as a natural feature.
It is not. The curved bank that defines most of its perimeter, and the straight eastern wall formed not by any human construction but by the linear face of outcropping rock, mark this as a hut site, the remains of a simple dwelling whose builders made use of whatever the landscape already offered them.
The structure measures 2.3 metres east to west, defined by a curving earthen bank roughly 0.7 metres wide and 0.8 metres high. What is particularly telling is the care taken with the interior floor. Because the site sits on a slope, the builders raised the southern end slightly and cut into the hillside at the north, levelling the interior to within a few centimetres across the whole space. It is the kind of practical detail that speaks to habitual occupation rather than casual shelter, though whether this was a seasonal dwelling, a shepherd's retreat, or something older is not recorded. A second hut site of the same general type lies approximately 8 metres to the north, suggesting that this was never quite a solitary place, however remote it feels today.