Hut site, Ballynafullia, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Ballynafullia, Co. Kerry

On a west-facing slope above the valley of the Dromoghty River in south-west Kerry, a low arc of collapsed stone just barely breaks the surface of the bog.

It is easy to walk past without registering what it is: the remnant of a small oval dwelling, its walls long since fallen but still traceable as a low ridge of drystone roughly sixty-five centimetres thick and forty centimetres high, preserved partly because the bog has grown up around and over it over the centuries.

The structure itself is modest in scale, measuring around five and a half metres east to west and just over three metres north to south, which puts it in the range of a single-roomed hut rather than any kind of substantial building. Drystone construction, in which stones are stacked without mortar and rely on careful placement and weight for stability, was common across upland and marginal landscapes in Ireland from prehistory well into the post-medieval period, and sites like this one in Ballynafullia are notoriously difficult to date without excavation. The rough hill pasture in which it sits, on the edge of blanket bog in the Dromoghty River valley, is the kind of terrain associated with seasonal grazing, small-scale agriculture, or simply the gradual retreat of settlement to poorer ground as populations shifted over time. The west-facing aspect would have offered some shelter from the prevailing wind, though at this elevation and in this landscape, the choice of site speaks more to practicality than comfort.

The walls protrude just enough above the bog surface to be identifiable on the ground, though the surrounding rough pasture makes the approach uneven underfoot. The oval outline is clearest when light falls low across the slope, which tends to happen in the late afternoon given the westerly orientation.

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Pete F
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