Hut site, Com Dhíneol Thuaidh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
Tucked into a field boundary near a farmhouse in the townland of Com Dhíneol Thuaidh on the Dingle Peninsula, a small stone hut survives in near-complete condition, and it is the detail of its interior that makes it quietly remarkable.
Cut into the wall is a small cupboard, a deliberate domestic touch inside a structure barely two and a half metres across and the same in height. Whoever built it wanted somewhere to put things.
The hut is corbelled, meaning its roof was formed by laying successive rings of stone so that each course projects slightly inward over the one below, eventually closing to a point or a capstone without the use of mortar or timber framing. This technique has deep roots in the Irish landscape, most famously in the early medieval clochán beehive huts of the Dingle Peninsula itself, but this particular example is described as relatively modern construction, which places it in a different category from the ancient monastic or settlement remains nearby. Its lintelled doorway faces west. It has been incorporated into a field boundary, suggesting it was built, or at least absorbed, as part of the working agricultural infrastructure of the surrounding land. The description comes from J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, which catalogued the remarkable density of monuments across this stretch of west Kerry.