Hut site, Derreenacullig, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Derreenacullig, Co. Kerry

On a quiet slope in Derreenacullig, tucked against the base of a craggy northern outcrop, the collapsed remains of a small D-shaped hut sit in open commonage with almost no ceremony about them.

What makes the structure quietly interesting is its geometry: the straight western wall is not an independent feature but is actually borrowed from the outer south-eastern face of a neighbouring hut site, the two structures sharing stonework the way terraced houses share a party wall. It is a detail easy to walk past without registering.

The hut measures roughly 2.75 metres east to west, built using drystone construction, a technique requiring no mortar, relying instead on the careful selection and stacking of stones to achieve stability. The walls, now collapsed, were originally around 0.8 metres high and about 0.6 metres thick. The entrance, just 0.4 metres wide, faces east, a common orientation in early Irish vernacular structures that offered some shelter from prevailing westerly weather while admitting morning light. The interior ground surface is level. The site sits in land that was, and apparently remains, held in commonage, the traditional form of shared pastoral land use across upland areas of Ireland, which may help explain why clusters of small huts like this one appear together on the same slope.

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Pete F
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