Hut site, Duagh, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Duagh, Co. Kerry

On a north-facing hillside above Duagh in County Kerry, a small D-shaped enclosure sits on an east-west terrace in rough, fern-covered grazing land, its drystone walls still largely standing despite partial collapse.

The structure is modest, measuring around four metres east to west, with walls built without mortar and cut into the slope at the south side. What makes it quietly remarkable is not its size but its completeness as a type: a main hut, a roofed internal annex tucked into the western corner, and two further hut sites sitting within roughly twenty metres in either direction, suggesting this hillslope once supported a small cluster of occupation rather than a single isolated shelter.

The hut itself is defined by a roughly constructed drystone wall, between 0.6 and 1 metre high depending on which side you measure, with a narrow entrance just 0.6 metres wide set into the eastern face. Inside that western corner, a smaller D-shaped annex, partially covered with stone slabs, survives to a height of 0.8 metres, the kind of low, enclosed alcove that might have served for storage or shelter of animals. Drystone construction of this kind, walls built by carefully stacking uncut or roughly shaped stone without any binding mortar, is found across Ireland from prehistoric times through to the post-medieval period, and without excavation the date of this particular site remains open. The interior today is level but filled with rubble and ferns, the vegetation slowly reclaiming what the stones once defined.

The hillslope looks north towards the mouth of Tralee Bay, a wide view that would have made the position both practical and exposed. The presence of at least two closely associated hut sites nearby raises the possibility that this was not a temporary shieling, used seasonally by herders moving livestock to upland pasture, but something more settled, or at least regularly returned to across generations.

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, Duagh, Co. Kerry. 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