Hut site, Curragh More, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Curragh More, Co. Kerry

On a stretch of upland ground in Curragh More, on the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, a low ring of boulders traces the outline of a structure so modest in scale that it is easy to step over it without registering what it is.

The remains measure roughly 4.6 metres by 4.4 metres, with the surviving wall reaching only about 40 centimetres in height and 55 centimetres in thickness. What those dimensions describe is the subcircular foundation of a small hut, the kind of shelter that would have housed a person, or perhaps animals, in a world where stone was the readiest building material to hand.

Structures like this appear across the Irish uplands in considerable numbers, and their dating is rarely straightforward without excavation. They belong to a tradition of dry-stone or boulder-built enclosures that spans a very long period, from early medieval pastoral activity through to more recent seasonal use associated with transhumance, the practice of moving livestock to higher ground during summer months. The Iveragh Peninsula is particularly dense with such remains, a landscape that rewards slow reading. This particular site sits approximately 120 metres east of another recorded monument, suggesting it formed part of a broader pattern of activity in the area rather than an isolated episode of occupation.

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