Clochan, An Blascaod Mór, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
A few metres from the cliff-edge on the north-western side of the Great Blasket Island, three small stone huts sit joined together, facing out towards the Atlantic.
They are clocháns, a type of ancient drystone shelter built without mortar, using corbelled construction, where each course of stone is laid slightly inward until the walls meet overhead in a self-supporting vault. What makes this particular group quietly arresting is not just the technique but the position: three conjoined structures, each communicating with the next, set almost at the island's edge.
The central hut is oval in plan, measuring roughly 4.05 by 2.8 metres, with a surviving height of just 0.9 metres. Inside, two small niches are set into the walls, the kind of recesses that might once have held a lamp or a few modest objects. An entrance on the south-eastern side connected to a second hut, while a further opening to the east probably led out to the open air. The remaining two huts, to the south-east and north-east, are badly ruined, though the south-eastern one may have had its own independent entrance facing roughly east-south-east, and originally measured around 4.65 metres across. The north-eastern hut was smaller, approximately 3 by 4 metres. The group was documented by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey, a landmark regional study covering the Corca Dhuibhne area, and that survey remains the primary source for understanding what survives here. Who built the clocháns, and when, is not recorded with any precision; early Christian monks and later secular users both made use of such structures across the west of Ireland, and the Great Blasket's remoteness made it a place where such buildings could endure simply by being left alone.