Hut site, Knocknabro, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Knocknabro, Co. Kerry

On a south-west-facing slope at Knocknabro in Co. Kerry, almost swallowed by heather and interrupted by rock outcrops, there is a circular stone hut so small you could pace across its interior in a few steps.

Its diameter measures just 3.9 metres, its drystone walls still standing to a height of 0.8 metres and running to a thickness of 0.6 metres. A gap in the south-west wall marks where the entrance once was, orientated, as was common practice, away from the prevailing weather and towards the downslope view.

What gives this modest structure its quiet interest is the care taken in its construction. Because it was built into a hillside rather than on level ground, the builder had to negotiate the natural slope. The north-east portion of the interior was cut back into the uphill ground to create a usable floor level, while the south-west portion is correspondingly raised by around 0.4 metres, the two adjustments together producing something approaching a flat surface within. More intriguing still is the internal arrangement: a curved wall in the north-north-east sector of the interior encloses the southern half of an elliptical area, with the northern half of that same space bounded by the inner face of the hut wall itself. This suggests a deliberate subdivision of the interior, perhaps separating sleeping or storage space from the main living area, though the structure's age and precise function remain unrecorded.

Drystone construction of this kind, where stones are laid without mortar and rely entirely on their own weight and careful placement to remain standing, is found throughout upland Kerry, associated with periods ranging from the early medieval to the post-medieval. Whether this particular hut belongs to a summer grazing tradition, a period of land pressure, or something earlier entirely, the landscape around it offers no immediate answer. It sits quietly in the rough pasture, doing nothing to announce itself.

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Pete F
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