Hut site, Inis Tuaisceart, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the southernmost accessible ground of Inis Tuaisceart, a small circular enclosure sits within an ancient field system, its drystone walls still standing to about half a metre, its eastern entrance gap still open.
Whether it was ever truly a dwelling or has simply served as a sheep-pen for centuries is, honestly, unresolved. That ambiguity is part of what makes it worth considering.
Inis Tuaisceart is the northernmost island in the Blasket group, lying four miles off the western tip of the Dingle Peninsula and two and a half miles north of the Great Blasket. Its 241 acres rise steeply toward a ridge along the northwest side, reaching 573 feet at their highest point, and the island is entirely encircled by sea-cliffs. The northern half of the island shows no trace of human settlement at all; everything of archaeological interest is concentrated in the southern portion, where a small field system surrounds an Early Christian monastic enclosure associated with St. Brendan. It is within this same cluster of remains that the circular structure sits. Internally it measures roughly 3.78 to 4 metres across, built from a combination of drystone walling and low upright stones, with a 0.6-metre entrance gap on the east side and, on the west, a lintelled opening leading into a small annex. Drystone construction, which uses no mortar and relies entirely on the careful stacking and interlocking of stone, was common across Early Christian Ireland and continued to be used for agricultural enclosures long after. The structure was recorded and described by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey, and its original function remains a matter of interpretation rather than certainty.
The island is uninhabited and access requires a boat crossing from the Dingle Peninsula; the surrounding cliffs mean landing is entirely dependent on sea conditions. The structure itself lies in the southern field system, near the broader Early Christian remains, and is most easily located in that context rather than as an isolated feature.