Hut site, Grousemount, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Grousemount, Co. Kerry

On the uplands of Grousemount in County Kerry, a small circular enclosure sits quietly absorbed into the landscape, its original purpose largely forgotten.

The structure is modest almost to the point of invisibility: a roughly circular area, measuring around three metres across at its widest, defined by a low drystone wall, built without mortar, that survives to a height of between thirty and fifty centimetres. What makes it linger in the mind is how thoroughly it has been assimilated. The northern side of the wall has been folded into a later field boundary running east to west, so that the ancient and the agricultural now share the same stone, the earlier structure quietly subordinated to the more practical demands of land division.

The site is classified as a hut site, a category that covers the remains of simple, often seasonal shelters used across many centuries of Irish rural life. These small stone enclosures appear across upland Kerry in considerable numbers, associated variously with transhumance, the seasonal movement of livestock to summer pastures, or with the solitary routines of herders, turf-cutters, and others who worked the higher ground far from permanent settlement. The circular plan here, with its wall arc running from the north-east, around the south, and back to the north-west, follows a pattern familiar from comparable sites across Munster. That so much of the wall survives at all, even at low height, speaks to the durability of the drystone tradition and to the relatively undisturbed nature of the surrounding land.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Hut site, Grousemount, Co. Kerry. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement