Hut site, Erneen, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Erneen, Co. Kerry

Tucked into the southern sector of an ancient enclosure in Erneen, County Kerry, a small D-shaped structure survives as little more than a collapsed ring of drystone, yet its proportions tell a remarkably specific story.

The hut measures roughly two metres from north to south, its wall, where it still stands, rising to about half a metre in height and sitting some sixty centimetres thick. Drystone construction, meaning walls built without mortar by carefully stacking and interlocking stones, was a technique used across Ireland from prehistoric times well into the early medieval period, and the sheer compactness of this example suggests a shelter rather than a dwelling of any permanence.

What survives best is the eastern arc of the wall, which still traces a gentle curve before meeting a straight southern side roughly 1.6 metres long. The hut sits immediately inside the southern wall of a larger enclosure, a spatial arrangement that was common in early Irish settlement patterns, where ancillary structures like animal shelters, storage huts, or sleeping quarters were built against the inner face of a main enclosing wall to save labour and share the boundary as one of their sides. About fifty metres to the west, a relict field boundary, the faint trace of an ancient land division now largely absorbed back into the landscape, hints that this was once part of a more organised agricultural setting. Together, the enclosure, the hut, and the field boundary form a small cluster of features that rarely receive much attention individually, but which, read together, sketch the outline of a working rural life now long gone.

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, Erneen, 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