Hut site, Baile An Lochaigh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the southern side of Com an Lochaigh, a hollow in the Dingle Peninsula landscape in County Kerry, there sits a small hut site that is easy to overlook entirely.
What makes it quietly interesting is not its scale but its detail: a circular foundation, measuring just 1.5 metres in diameter internally, pressed against the eastern side of the main hut structure. A feature that modest would barely shelter a person, and its precise function remains unrecorded.
The site was documented as part of the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey published in 1986, a systematic effort by J. Cuppage to record the remarkable density of early remains across the Dingle Peninsula. That peninsula holds one of the highest concentrations of ancient field monuments in Ireland, and small corbelled or dry-stone hut sites, often associated with early medieval settlement or seasonal pastoral activity, are scattered across its hillsides and coastal margins. The relationship between the main hut and the small circular annexe abutting it suggests a compound of some kind, though the record does not venture a date or a specific interpretation beyond the physical description.