Hut site, Gleann Fán, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Gleann Fán, Co. Kerry

The Ordnance Survey maps record two conjoined clocháns at Gleann Fán, but only one of the pair has survived.

That the maps still show both is, in its quiet way, a small act of optimism on the cartographers' part, or perhaps simply a record of what was once there rather than what remains.

The surviving structure is a corbelled drystone hut, a type of building constructed without mortar by carefully overlapping flat stones in progressively tighter rings until they meet at the top, creating a self-supporting dome or beehive shape. This one measures between 4.4 and 5.3 metres in diameter, stands 1.25 metres high, and has walls roughly 1.4 metres thick. Those thick walls are characteristic of the form; they are what makes the corbelling work. What makes this particular example slightly unusual is its internal arrangement: a line of upright slabs divides the interior, suggesting the space was partitioned, perhaps separating sleeping or working areas, though what specific use was made of those two halves is not recorded. The site was documented as part of J. Cuppage's 1986 archaeological survey of the Corca Dhuibhne region of the Dingle Peninsula, a landmark piece of fieldwork that catalogued the extraordinary density of early remains across that part of Kerry.

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