Hut site, Doonore, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
In rough pasture near the head of Gleann na nGealt, a valley whose name translates roughly as the Glen of the Lunatics, the ground holds the faint traces of what may once have been a simple dwelling.
The remains are described as very ruined and disturbed, which is about as modest an archaeological footnote as it is possible to receive, yet even this ambiguous scatter of stones sits within a landscape dense with early human activity on the Dingle Peninsula.
About a hundred metres to the south-south-east of the possible hut site, a souterrain was discovered, a detail that gives the ruined remains a little more weight. Souterrains are underground passages or chambers, typically built from dry stone and covered with large lintels, that appear frequently in early medieval Irish settlements, most likely used for storage or as places of refuge. Their presence beside a settlement site is common enough to suggest the two features may belong to the same period of occupation, though the disturbed condition of the hut remains makes any firm conclusion difficult. The site was catalogued as part of the Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey published by J. Cuppage in 1986, a thorough inventory of the Dingle Peninsula that brought many such quietly overlooked features into the record.