Hut site, Ballygub New, Co. Kilkenny
Co. Kilkenny |
Settlement Sites
In the townland of Ballygub New in County Kilkenny, there survives the trace of a hut site, one of the most quietly common yet least understood categories of monument in the Irish landscape.
Hut sites are the remains of simple, often circular or oval structures, built from stone, sod, or timber, and associated variously with seasonal farming activity, early medieval settlement, or more ancient habitation. They tend not to announce themselves. A slight depression, a scatter of stone, a change in the vegetation; these are the usual signs, easily overlooked from a road and not always obvious underfoot.
Ballygub New sits in a part of Kilkenny that retains a considerable density of archaeological monuments, from early medieval ecclesiastical remains to earthworks of various periods. The specific character of this hut site, its date, its dimensions, and any finds or features associated with it, remain at present undocumented in the public record. Without that detail, it is difficult to say whether it belongs to the early medieval period, when small stone-walled booley huts were used by herders moving cattle to summer pastures, or whether it represents something earlier or later entirely. What is certain is that it was recorded as a monument worthy of note, which means something visible or recoverable was once identified on the ground.