Hut site, Bray, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Bray, Co. Kerry

Near the tip of Bray Head on the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, a small circle of mortared stone sits quietly in the landscape, the collapsed remains of a structure just 3.1 metres in diameter.

It is easy to walk past without registering what it is, the foundations low and weathered, the interior open to the sky. But the care taken in its construction, stone courses set in mortar rather than dry-stacked, suggests something more deliberate than a simple field shelter.

The site lies a short distance south-east of Coosillaunkin, close to the headland's outermost point. Its purpose is not recorded with certainty, but its proximity to a nearby watch-tower offers a plausible context. Watch-towers along the Irish coast were typically built to monitor sea traffic or provide early warning of approaching threats, and a small associated hut, roughly the size of a single room, would have made practical sense as a shelter or guardpost for whoever was stationed at or near such a structure. A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan, who surveyed the archaeology of the Iveragh Peninsula in their 1996 Cork University Press volume, noted the possible connection between the two sites without drawing firm conclusions.

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