Hut site, Duagh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Duagh, Co. Kerry

On a north-facing hillside in County Kerry, a circle of earth and stone barely rises above the fern line, yet it marks the footprint of a structure in which someone once lived or worked.

The remains measure just 1.8 metres across internally, with a low encircling bank of earth and stone standing no higher than 35 centimetres and roughly 70 centimetres wide. A narrow entrance gap, only half a metre across, faces south, which would have offered the occupant some shelter from the prevailing northerly exposure. The level interior is now thickly covered with ferns, the kind of quiet vegetative reclamation that tends to settle over small earthworks once any trace of daily use has long passed.

What makes the site particularly interesting is that it does not stand alone. Two further hut sites lie within a short distance, one approximately 16 metres to the west and another roughly 10 metres to the south-west. Hut sites of this kind are the collapsed remains of small circular structures, built from whatever combination of earth, stone, and organic material the local ground offered, and their clustering in this part of Kerry suggests a pattern of settlement or seasonal activity rather than a single isolated dwelling. The terrace on which they sit runs east to west and looks northward toward the mouth of Tralee Bay, a sightline that might once have been practically useful as much as it is atmospherically striking today. The rough grazing land around them has preserved the low earthworks without drawing much attention to them, which is perhaps why they remain largely unvisited.

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Pete F
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