Hut site, Baile An Bhúlaeraigh Thuaidh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the rocky uplands of Baile An Bhúlaeraigh Thuaidh on the Dingle Peninsula, a small stone structure sits in a landscape that seems to resist habitation.
It is not a ruin in the conventional sense, more a survival, the remains of a roughly circular drystone hut built using a corbelled technique, where courses of unmortared stone are laid so that each projects slightly inward over the one below, eventually closing into a roof without any timber or keystone. The interior diameter is around 3.75 metres, the walls survive to a height of 2.2 metres, and at their base they are approximately 1.6 metres thick. Two possible wall niches are visible, the kind of recesses that might once have held a lamp, a small vessel, or some other domestic object.
The structure was recorded as part of J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, a survey that documented the extraordinary concentration of early remains across the Dingle Peninsula. Corbelled huts of this type are associated with early medieval Ireland, when small stone cells and shelters were built by hermits, farmers, or seasonal workers in remote terrain. The presence of roughly-constructed sheep-folds close by suggests this particular corner of ground has been used across multiple periods, the hut and the folds together pointing to a long, if sparse, human relationship with land that is difficult to work and easy to overlook.