Hut site, Cloghoge, Co. Wicklow

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cloghoge, Co. Wicklow

On a steep east-facing slope above Luggala lake in County Wicklow, a levelled oval platform cut into the hillside marks the ghost of a small dwelling.

The platform measures roughly eight metres east to west and five metres north to south, held in place on its western side by a revetment of small boulders, with steep scarps defining both the western and eastern edges. A narrow track, only about three metres long and less than two metres wide, approaches from the south and likely served as the entrance. It is easy to walk past without registering what you are looking at; the ground simply seems unusually flat for a moment, and then the hillside resumes.

Hut sites of this kind are among the more quietly intriguing features in the Irish upland landscape. The term covers a wide range of periods and purposes, from early medieval seasonal shelters used by people moving livestock to summer pastures, a practice known as booleying, to far older prehistoric enclosures. Without excavation it is difficult to say which category this example belongs to, and no dating evidence is recorded here. What can be said is that someone, at some point, went to the considerable effort of engineering a flat, sheltered living space on a difficult slope, using the natural topography and a carefully laid stone revetment to hold the ground steady. A second hut site lies just thirty metres to the south, suggesting this was not an isolated outpost but part of a small cluster of occupation, however temporary or seasonal that occupation may have been.

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Pete F
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