Hut site, Kelshabeg, Co. Wicklow

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Kelshabeg, Co. Wicklow

At the foot of Keadeen Mountain in County Wicklow, a small rectangular structure sits quietly within the enclosure of an early Irish cashel, its walls still standing after what may be well over a thousand years.

The hut is modest in scale, measuring roughly 6.9 metres east to west and 6.3 metres north to south, but it is the setting within a cashel that gives it particular interest. A cashel is a type of stone-walled enclosure, typically circular or roughly oval, associated with early medieval settlement in Ireland, and finding a hut site preserved within one offers a rare glimpse into how such enclosures were actually used as domestic or agricultural spaces.

The structure is built from uncoursed drystone walling, meaning the stones were laid without mortar and without any deliberate horizontal coursing, a technique common in early Irish construction. The walls are a substantial 1.2 metres thick, which would have provided both structural stability and insulation against the Wicklow weather. An entrance opens on the south side, a typical orientation that would have offered shelter from prevailing northerly winds while admitting light. The hut sits to the east of centre within the cashel enclosure, with marshy ground lying to the west of the site and the slope of Keadeen Mountain rising to the east, a position that would have been chosen with some care, balancing access to water with the need for relatively dry ground underfoot.

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