Hut site, An Sliabh Glas, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, An Sliabh Glas, Co. Kerry

On a rough, wet slope on An Sliabh Glas, the Green Mountain above the Dingle Peninsula, a small circular structure sits in scree-strewn pastureland, easy to overlook and difficult to date.

It is a drystone hut, built without mortar, its walls slightly corbelled, meaning each course of stone projects fractionally inward over the one below, a technique that adds stability and can support a domed or partially enclosed roof. The interior diameter is just 3.35 metres, the walls stand 1.17 metres high and are over a metre thick. It is, in every sense, a compact and purposeful construction.

This corner of Kerry, the Corca Dhuibhne or Dingle Peninsula, is extraordinarily dense with early remains. Clochán-style drystone huts of broadly similar construction appear throughout the peninsula, some associated with early Christian monastic activity, others linked to seasonal farming, transhumance, or simply the need for shelter on high ground. Without excavation it is rarely possible to assign a precise date to a structure like this, and the sparse, functional form of this particular hut gives little away. It was recorded as part of an extensive archaeological survey of the peninsula published by J. Cuppage in 1986 under the title Corca Dhuibhne, a project that catalogued hundreds of monuments across this exceptionally rich landscape.

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