Hut site, Cummeenduvasig, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cummeenduvasig, Co. Kerry

On the southern slope of Mangerton Mountain in County Kerry, a scatter of stones barely breaking the surface of the bog marks what may once have been someone's shelter, or perhaps a seasonal dwelling used during summer grazing.

The structure is modest almost to the point of invisibility: a circular hut site roughly two and a half metres in diameter, its outline defined more by what the bog has swallowed than by what remains visible above it.

What makes the site quietly interesting is the care evident even in its small footprint. The northern portion of the interior was cut into the upslope, a technique that would have provided both a level floor and some protection from the weather coming off the mountain. Hut sites of this kind are found across upland Ireland and can date from anywhere in prehistory through to the early medieval period, often associated with transhumance, the seasonal movement of people and livestock to higher pastures in summer months. At just two and a half metres across, this particular example would have been a spare, functional space rather than a permanent home. It sits in rough hill pasture on the western side of a lane in the townland of Cummeenduvasig, a fold of land on Mangerton's broad southern flank above the Killarney uplands.

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