Hut site, Baile Uí Shé, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Baile Uí Shé, Co. Kerry

On the steep western slopes of Ballysitteragh mountain in County Kerry, a small stone hut sits on a rocky terrace, largely intact after what may be many centuries.

What makes it quietly odd is not simply its age but the layers of practical reuse that have accumulated around it. A later field wall now cuts straight through the middle of the structure, and an oval animal shelter has been built along the line of its southern wall, so that the original hut and the later additions have become tangled into a single, improvised complex.

The structure is a clochan, the Irish term for a circular dry-stone hut built using the corbelling technique, in which each course of stones projects slightly inward over the one below until the courses meet at the top, forming a self-supporting beehive dome without mortar. This one measures roughly 3.4 metres in diameter and stands about 2 metres high. Its entrance faces south-south-east and opens into a small enclosure. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey map records two conjoined clochans here, but only one survives today. The site is documented in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey compiled by J. Cuppage under the auspices of Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, the heritage organisation for the Corca Dhuibhne region, which remains one of the foundational references for early settlement on the peninsula.

The entrance at the south-south-east and the position on a sheltered terrace suggest a structure built with some care for orientation and exposure, typical of the scattered hut sites found across the higher ground of the Dingle Peninsula. The gradual incorporation of the clochan into later agricultural use, first bisected by a field wall, then flanked by an animal shelter, is a pattern seen elsewhere on the peninsula, where early structures were neither demolished nor preserved but simply absorbed into whatever the land needed next.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Hut site, Baile Uí Shé, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement