Hut site, Buncrowey, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Settlement Sites
At Buncrowey in County Sligo, a quiet arrangement of large split stones traces a semi-circle roughly four and a half to five metres across.
It is not a wall, not quite a ring, and not immediately obvious for what it once was. The working interpretation is that these stones form the basal course of a hut site, meaning what survives is likely just the lowest layer of what was once a more substantial structure, the foundation footprint of a small dwelling whose upper walls and roof have long since disappeared.
What makes the site particularly interesting is its setting within a larger enclosure. The hut's remains sit on a raised area or platform, positioned within a subtriangular space measuring roughly 9.4 metres on its longest axis and 6.5 metres across, and this in turn occupies the south-western quadrant of the enclosure as a whole. An enclosure of this type typically defined a bounded area, sometimes for settlement, sometimes for agriculture or the keeping of livestock, and the deliberate placement of a raised platform within it suggests the hut occupied a specific, perhaps prominent position relative to the wider site. The geometry is careful even if the surviving stonework is fragmentary.