Hut site, Letter, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Letter, Co. Kerry

On a south-sloping bog to the east of Coomnacronia Lake, in the rough hill pasture of Letter in County Kerry, the outline of a small oval structure barely registers against the landscape.

What survives is fragmentary: a collapsed drystone wall, the kind built without mortar by fitting stones carefully against one another, enclosing a space just 2.2 metres north to south and 1.5 metres east to west. Larger stones from the lower courses protrude above the surface of the bog, and the interior is filled with rubble. It is the sort of site that rewards patience rather than spectacle.

The structure is modest even by the standards of what are generally called hut sites, a broad category that encompasses the seasonal shelters, booley huts, and rough enclosures used by people working upland grazing ground over many centuries in Ireland. The drystone walling here, though poorly preserved, follows a recognisable tradition of rough field construction, with larger foundation stones giving way to smaller courses above. What makes the location quietly interesting is its pairing with a second hut site recorded just six metres to the north. Two such structures in close proximity suggest some form of coordinated use of this hillside, whether for herding, seasonal habitation, or some other now-unreadable purpose. Neither site is well enough preserved to date with confidence, and the bog that has gradually obscured the interior of this one has, in the same movement, protected whatever might lie beneath the rubble from further disturbance.

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Pete F
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