Hut site, Doonaltan, Co. Sligo

Co. Sligo |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Doonaltan, Co. Sligo

In a field in Doonaltan, County Sligo, the faint outline of a small rectangular enclosure sits low against the ground, easy to miss and easier still to misread.

It measures roughly seven metres east to west and five metres north to south, defined on three sides by an earthen bank barely thirty centimetres high and less than two metres wide. The western side borrows the face of an existing field bank, suggesting that whoever built this structure was working practically within the landscape rather than imposing something new upon it. Small gaps on the northern and southern sides, around a metre wide each, mark what were almost certainly entrances.

What makes this modest earthwork quietly interesting is its context. A second hut site of the same general type lies just four metres to the south, and approximately thirty metres to the north sits a rath, the kind of enclosed farmstead defined by one or more circular earthen banks that was the standard unit of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland, roughly from the fifth to the twelfth century. Raths are common across the Irish countryside, but finding a pair of small rectangular hut sites positioned so close to one and apparently in relation to each other suggests this was a working cluster rather than an isolated dwelling, perhaps ancillary structures associated with the nearby enclosure, used for sheltering livestock, storing goods, or housing dependants. The subrectangular form, somewhere between a rough square and a proper rectangle, is typical of vernacular building before more regularised construction became standard.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Hut site, Doonaltan, Co. Sligo. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement