Booley hut, Bunnamohaun, Co. Mayo

Co. Mayo |

Farm Buildings

Booley hut, Bunnamohaun, Co. Mayo

On the lower south-western slopes of Knockmore, in a small natural basin called Prawke, eight low stone huts sit arranged in pairs around the edges of a hollow through which a stream runs.

The pairing is the curious thing. Booley huts, the temporary shelters used during booleying, the seasonal practice of moving cattle to upland pastures for the summer months, are common enough survivals across the Irish landscape. But huts arranged so consistently in twos, huddled together in a sheltered fold of ground, suggest something more considered than casual improvisation, perhaps two families sharing a season's grazing, or a division of labour that has simply left no written record.

This particular hut sits at the bottom of the basin, just north-east of the stream, with a companion structure lying only 5.5 metres to the south-east. Its walls survive as a low stony grass bank, no more than 0.4 metres high and between 0.9 and 1.2 metres wide, which traces an almost oval outline from the outside but resolves into a roughly rectangular interior measuring about 3.9 metres by 3.3 metres. The south-south-western side has two gaps in the bank; one was probably worn open by generations of animals or people crossing it, but the other, roughly 0.9 metres wide, is thought to mark the original entrance. Along the west-north-western side, a notably large sandstone-like block, about 0.8 metres long, is embedded in the bank, and immediately to its north a small circular pit, roughly 60 centimetres across and 20 centimetres deep, has been cut into the bank itself. Its purpose is unrecorded. The interior lies slightly below the level of the surrounding ground on the north-north-eastern side, and is scattered with stones, many of them now softened under grass.

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Pete F
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