Hut site, Garryknock, Co. Wicklow

Co. Wicklow |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Garryknock, Co. Wicklow

On a south-facing slope of rough commonage in County Wicklow, a low grassy bank traces the outline of a room that has not had walls for a very long time.

The enclosure is sub-rectangular, measuring roughly 3.8 metres from west-north-west to east-south-east and just over two metres across, with a bank that rises no more than 0.6 metres and spreads about 1.1 metres wide. The floor inside sits slightly below the surrounding ground, which is often a sign of long occupation, the earth compressed and hollowed by years of use. On the eastern side, a gap of around 0.8 metres marks what may once have been a doorway.

What makes this site particularly worth pausing over is not the single structure but the company it keeps. This hut is one of five that form a loose cluster on the same slope, each close enough to the others to suggest they were part of the same settlement rather than isolated shelters from different periods. The nearest neighbour lies only about 6.8 metres to the north-west. A cluster of this kind, sometimes associated with seasonal or transhumant farming practices, hints at a small community making organised, repeated use of upland grazing ground. The term "hut site" covers a broad range of periods and purposes in Irish archaeology, from early medieval farmsteads to post-medieval booley huts used by herders moving cattle to summer pasture, and without excavation it is difficult to assign a firm date to any individual structure here.

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Pete F
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