Hut site, Cappagh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cappagh, Co. Kerry

On the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, a small stone hut sits with a floor that has literally fallen into the earth beneath it.

That collapse is not mere ruin; it reveals the presence of a souterrain, an artificially constructed underground passage or chamber, typically associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland and thought to have served for storage, refuge, or both. The junction of these two structures, one above ground, one below, is what makes this otherwise modest site quietly remarkable.

The hut itself is of drystone construction, meaning its walls were built without mortar, stone laid carefully against stone. Subcircular in plan, it measures approximately 5.7 metres north to south and 5 metres east to west internally, with walls averaging around 1.6 metres wide. On the western side, the wall still stands to a height of 1.2 metres. On the eastern side, a gap of about 1.1 metres may mark the original entrance. At some point, a section of the floor gave way into the souterrain passage running beneath, leaving a visible break in the ground surface that connects the interior of the hut directly to the underground structure below. The site was documented as part of a comprehensive archaeological survey of the Iveragh Peninsula published by Cork University Press in 1996.

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