Hut site, Drombohilly, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a north-west-facing slope above Kenmare Bay, cut into the rough hill pasture of Drombohilly, two small rectangular hut sites share a wall.
That shared north-east wall, thicker than the others at 1.2 metres, is the most telling detail here: it suggests not just proximity but deliberate construction in tandem, two structures built as neighbours rather than strangers, their occupants close enough to share a boundary of stone and clay mortar.
The hut recorded here measures just 4.7 metres along its north-west to south-east axis and 1.9 metres across, which gives some sense of the confined, functional nature of the space. The walls survive to around 0.8 metres in height, though they are partially collapsed and grass-covered now, the kind of low, softened ridges that can read as natural undulation until you look carefully. Rubble is scattered across the interior. About 14 metres to the west sits a separate enclosure, suggesting this was once a small cluster of related features rather than an isolated building, perhaps a seasonal settlement of the kind common in upland areas of Kerry, where people moved livestock to higher ground in summer months and sheltered in temporary structures nearby. Clay mortar rather than dry-stone construction gives these walls a slightly more substantial character than the most basic field shelters, though the building was clearly modest in scale and ambition.
The terrace position, set into the slope with the bay visible below, would have offered some shelter from prevailing weather while keeping the broader landscape in view. The site is unexcavated, and without dateable material its age remains uncertain, though such hut clusters in south-west Kerry are generally associated with early medieval or post-medieval pastoral activity.