Hut site, Downmacpatrick, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Settlement Sites
At Downmacpatrick on the Old Head of Kinsale, a monument is legally protected by a preservation order, yet there is nothing left to see.
The hut site recorded here exists, in practical terms, only on paper, its physical presence having vanished entirely from the ground. That a site can be simultaneously preserved in law and absent in fact is one of the quieter ironies of Irish archaeological heritage.
The site was recorded in 1983 by David Sweetman and Muiris de Buitléir of the National Monuments Service, working under the Office of Public Works. A hut site, in the archaeological sense, is typically a slight circular or oval depression, sometimes accompanied by low earthen banks or scattered stone, marking where a simple dwelling once stood. Such features can be prehistoric or early medieval in origin, and they are easily disturbed or erased by later land use. By the time an archaeological assessment was carried out in 2012 in connection with proposed works at the Old Head Golf Links, which occupies much of the headland, no trace of the feature remained on the ground.
