House - indeterminate date, Annagap, Co. Kerry

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House

House – indeterminate date, Annagap, Co. Kerry

On a north-east facing slope less than a kilometre north of Anascaul, about two hundred metres west of the Owenascaul river, a large subrectangular enclosure holds the faint outlines of what may once have been a small settlement.

Known as Lisnakilla, or Lios na Cille in Irish, the site contains the foundations of several rectangular structures whose walls have been reduced over time to low stony banks. What makes it quietly puzzling is the question the place refuses to answer: nobody knows with certainty when it was built, who lived there, or how long it was in use.

The enclosure is divided internally by walls running across its width, and at least four rectangular structures, possibly house sites, are arranged in relation to these dividing walls in the northern half. Two abut the southern side of the northern dividing wall at its western end, a third sits against the northern side of a middle dividing wall, and a fourth occupies the north-east corner of the enclosure. Other low banks suggest further structures may once have existed, though too little survives for confident interpretation. The remainder of the interior is covered by east-west cultivation ridges, the kind of parallel earthworks left by repeated spade or plough tillage, and it is possible that the dividing walls and the structures themselves belong to the same agricultural phase rather than to any earlier period. A souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage or chamber often associated with early medieval settlement, was reportedly discovered in the south-west sector some years ago, though no visible trace of it now remains on the surface. The site was recorded in the Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey published by J. Cuppage in 1986 under the auspices of Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne.

The low banks that outline the structures are easy to overlook, particularly when vegetation is high, but the overall shape of the enclosure and the orderly arrangement of its internal walls are more legible from slightly elevated ground nearby. The Owenascaul river provides a useful orientation point when approaching from the east.

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