Hut site, Carran, Co. Clare
Co. Clare |
Settlement Sites
Three upright stones rising to about 0.8 metres punctuate the eastern wall of a small, roughly oval structure near Carran in County Clare, giving it a quality that sets it apart from the general run of collapsed field debris.
This is not a ruin in the dramatic sense; the walls survive only to between 0.2 and 0.4 metres in height, grass-covered and low, but they are well-defined enough to read clearly on the ground.
The hut sits at the centre of a larger enclosure, a positioning that suggests it was a deliberate focal point rather than an incidental addition. Its internal dimensions measure approximately 5.3 metres east to west and just over 4 metres north to south, with walls between 0.75 and 0.95 metres thick incorporating some noticeably large stones and boulders, the biggest reaching half a metre in length and width. Structures of this kind, small stone-walled huts set within enclosures, are found across the Irish landscape and are generally associated with early medieval settlement and agriculture, though the precise date and use of any individual example is rarely straightforward to pin down. The three upright orthostats on the eastern side are a particular curiosity; whether they formed part of an entrance arrangement or served some structural function within the wall is not recorded.