Hut site, Crohane, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a rocky, south-south-west-facing slope in the rough commonage above Crohane, three ancient hut sites sit close together on ground that has long since reverted to open hillside.
The one examined here is small and circular, measuring roughly 3.3 metres east to west and 3.1 metres north to south, its outline still legible despite the collapse of the drystone wall that once defined it. Drystone construction uses no mortar; stones are fitted and stacked by hand, relying on their own weight and arrangement to hold. The wall here, though fallen, still reads as a coherent boundary, its original thickness around 0.65 metres and its surviving height about half a metre.
What makes the interior particularly interesting is a small subrectangular feature set into the southern half of the space. Built from flat slabs and open to the north, it measures roughly 1.45 metres by 1.2 metres. Its exact function is not recorded, but features of this kind in similar hut sites are sometimes interpreted as sleeping platforms, storage recesses, or small internal annexes. The entrance to the hut faces north, which is an unusual orientation given that south-facing openings tend to maximise light and shelter in the Irish climate. The two companion sites lie close by, one approximately five metres to the south and another around twelve metres to the south-east, suggesting this was not an isolated dwelling but part of a small cluster of habitation on the hillside. Whether these were used simultaneously or represent successive phases of occupation, the ground does not say.