Hut site, Derrynafeana, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Derrynafeana, Co. Kerry

On a boggy terrace on the western slopes of Slievanore, a low ring of stones barely clears the surface of the heather.

It is easy to miss, and that is rather the point. What protrudes from the ground here are the surviving lower courses of a circular stone wall, all that remains of a hut site measuring roughly 2.1 metres north to south and 1.9 metres east to west. The wall itself stands only about 0.4 metres high and is 0.55 metres thick, the bog having gradually consumed much of the rest. It is a small, quiet ruin, but its scale and setting reward attention.

The site sits within a wider field system on the lower slopes, and a second hut site adjoins it immediately to the west, suggesting that whoever sheltered or worked here was not entirely alone. Both structures are recorded by O'Sullivan and Sheehan in their 1996 survey of south-west Kerry. The outlook from the terrace runs north-west over Lough Acoose, the kind of placement that was rarely accidental in early settlement; a view across water meant a view across a resource and a boundary. The rough grazing of heather and gorse that now covers the ground offers little indication of what the surrounding field system may once have supported, but the presence of multiple hut sites within a defined enclosure implies repeated, organised use of this patch of hillside rather than a single opportunistic shelter.

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Pete F
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