Hut site, Fustane, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Fustane, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope in Fustane, where rough pasture gives way to a view down over the Roughty River valley, there is a small rectangular outline in the ground that most walkers would step over without a second thought.

It measures roughly five metres east to west and three metres north to south, its boundary marked by a grass-covered wall of collapsed drystone construction, the stones now barely rising twenty centimetres above the surrounding terrain. Loose rubble lies scattered both inside and outside the footprint, the whole thing sitting quietly at the break of the slope as though it simply ran out of momentum there.

Drystone construction, which uses no mortar and relies entirely on the careful fitting of stones, was the dominant building method across rural Ireland for centuries, and hut sites of this kind can belong to a very wide range of periods. The rectangular form here distinguishes it from the more ancient tradition of circular stone huts, though that alone is not enough to date it precisely. What the site does preserve is a sense of deliberate placement. Whoever built here chose the south-facing slope for good reason: shelter from northerly weather, maximum exposure to low winter sun, and a long sightline down the river valley below. The Roughty runs eastward through a broad valley in south Kerry, and a structure positioned at this break in the slope would have commanded a clear view of movement along it.

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Pete F
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