Hut site, Killabunane, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Killabunane, Co. Kerry

On the north-facing lower slopes of Beneen, in rough pasture in Killabunane, there is a small square enclosure that most walkers would step over without a second glance.

It measures roughly 2.4 metres east to west and 2.2 metres north to south, which makes it barely larger than a modest garden shed. Three of its sides are formed by a collapsed drystone wall, now moss-covered and standing to a height of around 0.85 metres, while the fourth side, to the south, is simply a smooth vertical face of natural outcropping rock. Whoever built this structure saved themselves the labour of one wall by letting the landscape provide it.

Drystone construction, which uses no mortar and relies entirely on the careful placement of stone upon stone, has been used in Ireland from prehistory well into the modern era, so pinning a precise date to a small roofless hut like this is rarely straightforward without excavation. What can be said is that the form is consistent with temporary shelters used by those working upland ground, whether for seasonal grazing, turf-cutting, or other agricultural purposes. A break in the north wall is thought to indicate where the entrance once was, which would have faced away from the prevailing shelter offered by the rock to the south and opened instead onto the slope descending toward lower ground.

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Pete F
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