Hut site, Formaoil, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Formaoil, Co. Kerry

On the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, a roughly circular enclosure of large boulders and upright slabs sits at the western tip of a narrow spur of land, looking out over Ballinskelligs Bay.

It does not appear on Ordnance Survey maps, and its official classification as a hut site sits awkwardly alongside what local people actually called it and used it for. The local name is ceallúnach, a term applied in Irish tradition to informal or unconsecrated burial grounds, often associated with unbaptised children or those excluded from parish cemeteries. Within living memory, this place was still being used as a burial ground.

The enclosure itself is substantial rather than modest. A wall of large boulders defines an approximately circular area, and within the northern half of the interior sit the remains of a rectangular structure measuring 5.7 metres by 2.3 metres, accompanied by scattered smaller boulders and further upright slabs. The rectangular dimensions suggest something built with purpose and intention, though whether it served as a dwelling, a chapel, or something else entirely is not recorded. What is clear is that the site accumulated layers of use over time, from whatever its original function was to its later role as a place of burial outside formal ecclesiastical ground. That combination, a prehistoric or early medieval enclosure quietly repurposed for the burial of those the Church would not receive, is not unique in Ireland, but it is always quietly affecting when encountered in the landscape.

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Pete F
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