Hut site, Barnastooka, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the southern slope of the Barnastooka ridge in County Kerry, three small circular enclosures sit in a gentle north-to-south line, completely absent from Ordnance Survey maps.
That cartographic silence is itself telling. These are the kinds of structures that exist in the landscape's memory rather than its official record, known locally or by chance rather than through any formal documentation.
Each of the three hut sites takes the same basic form: a roughly circular area defined by a low drystone wall, a construction method in which stones are laid without mortar, relying on careful placement and weight for stability. The example designated CH12 measures approximately 7.5 metres north to south and 6 metres east to west, with walls averaging around half a metre in height. The interior is level and grass-covered. The south-facing aspect of the ridge would have offered the occupants some shelter from prevailing weather, and the choice of slope suggests a deliberate, practical logic to the sitting, even if nothing in the surviving fabric can tell us precisely when these structures were in use or by whom.