Hut site, An Baile Breac, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the northern bank of a tributary of the Feohanagh river, out in open mountain terrain on the Dingle Peninsula, a low ring of stone sits quietly in the landscape.
It is a hut foundation, possibly circular in its original form, measuring about 3.6 metres across with walls surviving to roughly 1.1 metres in height and 1.2 metres in thickness. Small as it is, it represents the kind of early vernacular structure that once dotted these upland areas, the remains of a dwelling or seasonal shelter built by someone who lived, worked, or moved through this part of west Kerry long ago.
The site sits within the territory historically known as Corca Dhuibhne, the Dingle Peninsula, a stretch of land unusually dense with archaeological remains ranging from promontory forts to ogham stones, the latter being upright pillars carved with an early medieval Irish script. This particular structure was recorded by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey, a systematic study of the peninsula's monuments published under the auspices of Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne. That survey catalogued hundreds of sites across the area, and this hut foundation appears as entry number 1089, one small entry in a long record of human presence in a landscape that has been continuously inhabited and worked for millennia.