Hut site, Gortadirra, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Gortadirra, Co. Kerry

On a steep north-east-facing slope in the mountain pasture above Lough Leane, a small rectangle of collapsed drystone walling marks the outline of a structure that most walkers would step over without a second glance.

The walls have fallen so thoroughly that rubble has spread both inside and outside the original footprint, much of it now buried under ferns and heather. What remains just legible is a room measuring roughly 3.2 metres along its north-west to south-east axis and 2.1 metres across, with wall material that was once around half a metre thick. A single large boulder was worked into the fabric of the wall at the north corner, the kind of practical decision a builder makes when the landscape offers a ready-made cornerstone and there is no point in moving it.

Drystone construction of this kind, in which stones are laid without mortar, was the standard technique for small agricultural and pastoral shelters across the Irish uplands for many centuries, and the mountain slopes around Lough Leane preserve a considerable number of such remains. This particular hut does not stand alone. Two comparable structures survive approximately 75 metres to the south, suggesting that this was once a small cluster of buildings rather than an isolated refuge, possibly associated with seasonal grazing activity of the kind that would have drawn people and livestock up onto the higher ground during summer months. The views north-east over Lough Leane, the largest of the Killarney lakes, would have been incidental to anyone sheltering here against the weather, though they remain a reasonable compensation for the climb.

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Pete F
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