House - indeterminate date, Coill Bhaile Uí Fhlaithimh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
House
On the lower north-western slopes of Cummeen mountain in County Kerry, overlooking the valley of the Owencashla river, the remains of a small collapsed structure sit at the eastern end of a cluster of house-sites at a place known as Caherbaun, or An Chathair Bhán in Irish.
What makes it quietly curious is precisely how little can be pinned down about it: no date, no builder, no certain function. It may have been a dwelling in its own right or simply an annex attached to the adjacent house-site, the kind of addition that suggests a household expanding incrementally rather than building anew.
The structure itself is modest, measuring roughly 3.4 metres east to west and 3 metres north to south internally, with what appears to be a narrow entrance, about 75 centimetres wide, at the western end of the south wall. Much of it has collapsed, leaving the ground plan legible only in outline. It was recorded and described by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey, a substantial fieldwork project covering the Corca Dhuibhne region, and sits among a wider grouping of house-sites at Caherbaun. The indeterminate date is not unusual for structures of this kind on the peninsula, where vernacular building traditions persisted across many centuries and surface remains alone rarely yield a reliable chronology.