Hut site, Bunbinnia, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Bunbinnia, Co. Kerry

On a sheltered ledge above the Gearhameen river, on the lower south-eastern slopes of Broaghnabinnia in County Kerry, the collapsed walls of a small stone hut sit largely unnoticed.

It is not a dramatic ruin by any measure, its walls now reduced to little more than half a metre in height, but its proportions and position tell a quiet story about how people once organised their lives around this mountain terrain.

The structure is sub-rectangular, measuring roughly 3.4 metres by 3.2 metres, with walls approximately 0.6 metres thick. A narrow entrance, just 0.66 metres wide, faces south, a common orientation for small vernacular structures in upland Kerry, where the southern aspect offers some shelter from prevailing weather. Hut sites of this kind are generally associated with seasonal pastoral activity, particularly the practice of booley farming, in which families or labourers moved cattle to higher ground during summer months and lived in temporary or semi-permanent shelters while tending them. Whether this particular example belonged to that tradition or served some other purpose, the notes do not say, but its placement on a ledge above the river, rather than in an exposed summit position, suggests a degree of practical calculation in its siting.

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Pete F
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