Hut site, Bunbinnia, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the lower slopes of Broaghnabinnia in south Kerry, a rough circle of boulders sits close to a tributary of the Gearhameen river.
A single course high, the stones describe an interior space of just 3.7 metres by 3.2 metres, barely enough to shelter a small family or a lone herder from the Atlantic weather that rolls in across the Iveragh peninsula. It is easy to walk past without registering what it is.
This is a hut site, a type of simple stone enclosure found across upland Ireland, typically associated with seasonal occupation by people moving livestock to higher pastures during summer months, a practice known as booleying. The dimensions here are modest even by those standards. The structure sits on the south-eastern slopes of Broaghnabinnia, positioned close to a water source, which would have been a practical necessity for anyone making extended use of the site. When it was built or how regularly it was used is not recorded, but hut sites of this kind are generally understood to reflect agricultural patterns stretching back centuries, if not longer, into the pastoral life of rural Kerry.