Hut site, Gleann Fán, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Gleann Fán, Co. Kerry

On the southern slopes of Beennacouma, in the rough and rocky terrain of Gleann Fán, two small stone structures sit joined together as if for company.

They are easy to walk past without a second thought, their walls reduced to low foundations, but what remains is enough to read the shape of a life once lived at considerable altitude and in considerable exposure.

The site consists of a pair of conjoined drystone huts, built without mortar in the manner common across early Irish settlement landscapes, where split and gathered stone was laid carefully against itself to form walls that relied on weight and fit rather than binding. The two chambers differ slightly in size, one measuring roughly 2.7 by 2 metres and the other approximately 3 metres across, with surviving wall heights of 1.25 metres and 0.5 metres respectively. The pairing of the structures is what makes the site quietly interesting. Two rooms, adjoined, suggest something more considered than a simple seasonal shelter, though whether this was a habitation, a working station, or something else entirely, the stones do not say. The site was recorded as part of J. Cuppage's archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region, published in 1986, a systematic effort to document the extraordinary density of prehistoric and early historic remains across the Dingle Peninsula.

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