Hut site, Baile Ristín, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Baile Ristín, Co. Kerry

On the eastern slopes of the Garfinny valley in Co. Kerry, a cluster of low stone walls sits on a series of small grassy terraces, easy to mistake for natural features of the landscape.

What they actually represent is a working complex of four drystone huts and two sheep-folds, grouped closely together in a way that suggests a coherent, if modest, agricultural arrangement. The most striking detail is found in the first hut: its lintelled entrance is only large enough to admit sheep, which raises the immediate question of whether it was ever intended for human use at all, or whether it served purely as animal shelter from the outset.

The four huts vary considerably in form and construction. Hut 1 is a small circular structure with a corbelled foundation, a building technique in which stones are layered so that each course projects slightly inward, eventually closing the space overhead without mortar. It is described as poorly constructed, standing only 0.8 metres high with walls between 0.81 and 0.9 metres thick. Hut 2 is D-shaped rather than circular, its straight southeastern side formed partly by a natural rock outcrop that the builders incorporated directly into the wall, reaching 1.25 metres in height. Hut 3 has been further obscured by a sheep-pen built directly on the site, leaving only probable ruins beneath. Hut 4 is the most substantial of the group, a circular corbelled foundation 3.12 metres in diameter and 2 metres high, with walls 1.6 metres thick. These dimensions were recorded in the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey compiled by J. Cuppage and published in 1986, which documented the dense concentration of early remains across the Dingle Peninsula. The site is referenced there as entry number 1157.

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