Hut site, Cummeenduvasig, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Cummeenduvasig, Co. Kerry

On the crest of a ridge in the rough hill pasture of Cummeenduvasig, a small circular ruin sits looking out over the valley of the Owbaun River.

It is easy to walk past without registering what it is: a low ring of collapsed drystone wall, barely knee-high in places, enclosing a space just 3.6 metres across. But the care that went into its construction becomes apparent once you look closely. Whoever built this hut did not simply place it on the slope; they engineered around it, raising the eastern portion of the interior floor and cutting the western side nearly a metre into the hillside to create something approaching a level living surface.

Drystone construction, which uses no mortar and relies instead on the careful selection and arrangement of stones, was a technique employed across many centuries of Irish rural life, from early medieval farming settlements to the temporary booley huts used by communities who moved their cattle to upland pastures in summer. The Cummeenduvasig hut is not an isolated anomaly. Two further hut sites are adjoined directly to its southern and eastern arcs, forming a cluster, and a fourth example sits roughly 25 metres to the south. That grouping suggests this was not a lone shepherd's shelter but something more deliberate, a small complex of structures whose occupants made use of the same exposed ridgeline together. Loose stones scattered across the interior are likely the remnants of the wall as it has gradually shed material over time.

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Pete F
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