Hut site, Cloontreem, Co. Cork

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cloontreem, Co. Cork

On the lower south-east-facing slopes of Eagle Hill in Cloontreem, a small rectangular outline sits half-submerged in bog, its base stones just breaking the surface.

The structure is modest by any measure, roughly 3.4 metres along its longer axis and 2 metres across, but what makes it quietly arresting is the way it refuses to fully disappear. Drystone walling, a construction technique relying entirely on the careful placement of unmortared stone, survives to a maximum height of 0.7 metres on the better-preserved sides, while the south-east and south-west faces have largely collapsed inward.

The most telling detail is on the north-east and north-west sides, where stone slabs have been set at right angles to the wall line and left leaning against one another, almost like a row of books propped together. Whether these represent an original construction feature or a later attempt at consolidation is difficult to say without excavation, but their presence gives the ruin a slightly architectural quality that plain rubble walls rarely retain. The site sits on a rocky terrace within a rough pasture spur, a marginal kind of ground that in many parts of Ireland was occupied by seasonal or temporary shelters associated with upland grazing. A second hut site of the same general type lies approximately 40 metres to the west, suggesting this was never an entirely solitary spot, even if whoever used it left no written record of their presence.

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Pete F
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