Hut site, Canagullen, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
Beneath the blanket bog at Canagullen in south-west Kerry, a small circular wall is quietly waiting.
Only the upper stones break the surface, tracing a ring roughly 3.2 metres across, which is barely enough space for a single room. This is a hut site, the collapsed remnant of a drystone structure, built without mortar, that once formed part of a larger enclosed settlement. The bog has done the preserving work, holding what remains of the lower wall courses in place while the rest scattered downslope to the south-east.
The structure sits within the north-eastern sector of a wider enclosure, a bounded area that would have organised the space around these small buildings, possibly for habitation, pastoral use, or both. The builders worked carefully with the hillside rather than against it: the south-eastern side of the hut is raised slightly above the surrounding ground, built up by around 0.3 metres, while the north-western side is cut into the slope by about 0.6 metres, creating a level interior on what would otherwise be a gradient. A large flat stone slab lies prostrate against the north-eastern arc of the wall outside the structure, its original purpose unclear but its size suggesting it was placed there deliberately rather than simply fallen. A second hut site of the same general character lies 24 metres to the north-north-east, suggesting this was never a solitary building but part of a small cluster of activity on this hillside.