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 ancient stone huts sit conjoined, looking out over one of the more exposed stretches of the Atlantic coastline in Ireland.
They are clocháns, a term for the dry-stone beehive or oval huts built without mortar that appear across the west of Ireland, particularly on the Dingle Peninsula, and whose origins in some cases reach back to the early medieval period. What makes this particular cluster quietly arresting is the combination of its setting and its condition: the central hut survives well enough to read clearly as a structure, while its two companions have fallen into considerable ruin, leaving the group with the atmosphere of something half-remembered.
The central hut is oval in plan and built using corbelling, a technique in which stones are laid so that each course projects slightly inward over the one below, allowing the builder to close a roof without any mortar or timber. It measures roughly 4.05 by 2.8 metres, and still stands to a height of about 0.9 metres. Inside, two small wall niches are preserved, the kind of shallow recesses often used for storing small objects or perhaps holding a light. There were two entrances: one to the south-east, which connected through to the adjoining south-eastern hut, and a second to the east that likely led directly outside. The south-eastern hut, the larger of the two ruined companions at around 4.65 metres across, may once have had its own independent entrance facing roughly east-south-east. The north-eastern hut is the most fragmentary, with surviving dimensions of approximately 3 by 4 metres. The description of this hut group was first set out in J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, which remains a foundational record of the Dingle Peninsula's exceptionally dense prehistoric and early Christian remains.
The Great Blasket was permanently evacuated in 1953 when its last residents were resettled on the mainland, and the island is now uninhabited. It can be reached by boat from Dunquin during the summer months, and visitors on foot can explore the island's interior. The north-western cliffs where this hut group stands are at some remove from the more frequented village site, and the terrain close to the cliff-edge deserves care. The ruined state of two of the three huts means that what survives is subtle; the corbelled masonry of the central structure rewards close inspection more than any distant view of the site would suggest.