Hut site, Cloddagh, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Settlement Sites
At the western edge of a promontory fort on the Cork coast at Cloddagh, the ground holds what remains of a small circular hut, so worn by time that it is barely legible in the landscape.
Measuring roughly 3.5 metres in diameter, it is the kind of trace that rewards patience and a slow eye rather than a quick glance.
Recorded by Casey in 2002, the structure sits centrally positioned near the western extremity of the promontory fort it belongs to. A promontory fort is a defended enclosure that uses a natural headland or coastal spur as its foundation, with artificial earthworks, usually a bank and ditch, cut across the neck of land to close off the approach. The hut within such a fort would have served whoever occupied or used the enclosure, though whether that means permanent habitation, seasonal use, or something more ceremonial is rarely easy to determine from surface remains alone. At 3.5 metres across, this is a modest structure, roughly the footprint of a large garden shed, and its indistinctness suggests considerable age and exposure.