Hut site, Killabunane, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Killabunane, Co. Kerry

On an east-facing slope in the valley of the Feabunaun stream in south-west Kerry, a small rectangular enclosure sits in rough hill pasture, its western wall formed not by any human hand but by a natural face of outcropping rock rising about four metres.

That detail alone makes the structure quietly unusual. Whoever built here was working with the landscape rather than against it, pressing a ready-made cliff face into service as one side of a shelter and constructing the remaining walls from whatever material lay to hand.

The hut measures five metres north to south and just 2.2 metres east to west, making it a narrow, elongated space barely wide enough for two people to lie side by side. The north and east walls are of drystone construction, a technique in which stones are laid without mortar, relying on their own weight and careful placement for stability; both have partially collapsed over time, surviving to a height of around 0.7 metres. The south wall is slightly more substantial, standing about 1.05 metres high, and is built on top of an earthen bank rather than directly on the ground. The single entrance, positioned on the north side, is only 0.55 metres wide, a gap narrow enough to suggest it was designed to keep out wind, animals, or cold rather than to welcome visitors. The place is classified as a hut site, a broad category that covers temporary or seasonal shelters used by herders, labourers, or travellers, though no date has been formally assigned to this particular structure.

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Pete F
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