Hut site, Cappagh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a rough patch of pasture in Cappagh, County Kerry, the ground holds what remains of a very small circular dwelling, its drystone walls long since collapsed but still traceable as a low ring of loose stone.
The structure measures just 2.6 metres in diameter, barely large enough for a single person to sleep stretched out, and whoever built it made a practical adjustment for the sloping terrain: the interior floor was built up on the southern side to create a more level surface. Drystone construction, which uses no mortar, relies entirely on the careful placement and weight of stones against one another, and in this case what survives stands only about 0.4 metres high, the wall having spread outward to a thickness of roughly 0.6 metres as it fell.
What makes the site more than a single curiosity is the company it keeps. A closely related hut site sits immediately to the north, and a third example lies roughly 25 metres to the south-east. A relict field boundary, the ghostly trace of an old enclosure no longer in agricultural use, survives just to the south. Taken together, these features suggest a small cluster of activity, perhaps seasonal shelters associated with the working of nearby land, though the precise period of use is not recorded. The site itself is sheltered on its northern side by a steep slope, and positioned on the western bank of a southward-flowing stream, a practical arrangement that would have offered both some protection from weather and a reliable water source.