Hut site, Farranyharpy, Co. Sligo
Co. Sligo |
Settlement Sites
In a field in Farranyharpy, County Sligo, a slight oval swelling in the ground is almost all that remains of what was once someone's home.
It measures roughly 6.6 metres from northwest to southeast and 5.5 metres across, enclosed by a low bank of earth and stone that rises no more than 45 centimetres at its highest point. Stones protrude from the upper edge of that bank, possibly the last trace of wall footings, the point where a built structure met the ground. No original entrance can be made out any longer.
The site sits just 100 metres east of a cashel, a type of stone-walled enclosure common in early medieval Ireland, typically used to define a farmstead or settlement. The proximity of the two features suggests they may have belonged to the same small community or household, the cashel providing the main enclosure and this modest oval structure perhaps serving as ancillary living or working space just beyond its boundary. What the relationship was, and when exactly people occupied this corner of Sligo, the physical remains alone cannot say.