Hut site, Foilatrisnig, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a steep east-facing slope above Gleann na nGealt, a valley whose name translates roughly as the Glen of the Mad, the remains of a small circular stone hut sit within the confines of an ancient enclosed settlement.
The hut itself is modest almost to the point of invisibility: its walls survive to a maximum height of just 0.4 metres, and in most places only a single course of stone remains. Yet the proportions are still legible. The wall was 2.5 metres thick, the interior just 4.4 metres in diameter, and the entrance, facing east-northeast, was at least 0.8 metres wide. Three stones set on edge between the hut and the main gateway of the enclosure may once have formed a defined pathway between the two.
The hut forms part of a univallate rath, a type of enclosed farmstead ringed by a single earthen or stone bank that was the most common form of rural settlement in early medieval Ireland. This particular example sits on a level terrace cut into the otherwise sharp gradient of the hillside, a deliberate choice that would have provided both a stable platform and a commanding view over the valley below. The interior of the rath has since been divided by a later field fence into two unequal portions; the hut and an associated souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage typically used for storage or refuge, occupy the larger southern section. The site was documented by J. Cuppage as part of the Dingle Peninsula Archaeological Survey, published in 1986 under the Irish-language title Corca Dhuibhne, a survey that remains a foundational record of the peninsula's prehistoric and early historic landscape.