Clochan, Baile Ristín, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Clochan, Baile Ristín, Co. Kerry

On the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, there is a feature that resists easy explanation.

A low, raised platform of stone sits in the landscape near Baile Ristín, measuring roughly 7.5 metres by 10.3 metres and rising no more than 40 centimetres at its highest point. Along its south-eastern edge, three low stones are arranged as a kerb, and tucked into the western sector are the collapsed remains of a small rectangular enclosure, built from drystone walling and measuring just 2 metres by 2 metres. The whole thing is a puzzle: enough survives to know something deliberate was built here, but not enough to say what it was.

The structure was recorded in J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, a landmark survey of the Dingle Peninsula that catalogued the extraordinary density of prehistoric and early medieval remains across this part of west Kerry. The feature had already been marked on the Ordnance Survey Fair Plan under the name 'Cloghane', a Hiberno-English rendering of clochan, which typically refers to a small stone building or beehive hut of the kind associated with early Christian monastic life along the Atlantic seaboard. Whether that name was applied accurately or simply inherited from some older, imprecise tradition is unclear. What the survey concluded was careful and honest: the evidence is insufficient to classify the structure, and it is unlikely to be connected to any nearby standing stones. A small drystone pen, crudely built, on a stony platform. Beyond that, the record falls quiet.

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Pete F
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