Hut site, Gortlicka, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Gortlicka, Co. Kerry

On a west-facing slope above the valley of the Dromoghty River in south-west Kerry, a small rectangular structure sits in rough pasture, its walls still partially standing despite being built of nothing more than stone and clay mortar.

The hut measures just 2.85 metres east to west and 2 metres north to south, with walls around 0.7 metres thick and surviving to a height of roughly 0.9 metres. A narrow entrance, only 0.6 metres wide, opens from the north-east corner, and the southern wall runs directly against an older field boundary, suggesting that whoever built here was working within, or alongside, a pre-existing agricultural landscape.

Structures of this kind are scattered across the hillsides of Kerry, and their origins and purposes are not always easy to pin down. Some are associated with seasonal grazing practices, particularly the tradition of booloying, in which livestock were moved to upland pastures in summer and those tending them required basic shelter. Others may relate to small-scale tillage, turf cutting, or simply the need for a temporary refuge on exposed ground. The relationship between this hut and the field boundary to its south is quietly telling: the boundary was already there when the hut was built, or at least the builder treated it as fixed, which hints at a landscape that had already been organised and worked for some time before this small shelter was added to it.

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Pete F
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