Hut site, Inchincoosh, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Inchincoosh, Co. Kerry

On a south-east-facing slope in the hill pasture above the Thureehouma stream in County Kerry, a circle of large stones protrudes just above the surface of the bog.

Partially swallowed by ferns and surrounded by loose rubble, it marks the outline of a circular hut site no more than two metres in diameter, its drystone wall, built without mortar, now collapsed to a height of roughly forty centimetres. What makes this spot quietly compelling is not the structure itself, modest as it is, but the landscape it sits within: a network of relict field boundaries that spread across the hillside, the faint geometry of a farming world that has long since ceased to function.

The hut site is one of three recorded in close proximity on this slope. A second sits just one metre to the south, and a third eighteen metres to the north, suggesting this was not an isolated shelter but part of a small cluster of activity, whether seasonal grazing, cultivation, or some combination of both. Drystone construction of this kind, using large uncut stones laid and stacked without any binding material, is one of the most ancient and enduring building techniques in Ireland, and the remains here speak to a way of organising upland land use that was once common across Kerry but is now largely invisible to the casual eye. The bog has crept up around the stones over time, and the ferns have done the rest.

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Pete F
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