Hut site, Lisleibane, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
Three circular hut foundations sit on the north-eastern slopes of Knockbrinnea in County Kerry, so low to the ground now that they read more as faint rings pressed into the hillside than anything a visitor might immediately recognise as architecture.
The walls survive to no more than 0.7 metres at their tallest, and in two cases considerably less, yet the outlines are clear enough to suggest a small settlement that once occupied this particular bend of ground above the Gaddagh river.
The site consists of two conjoined huts and a third set apart from them by about six metres to the north-west. The paired huts measure roughly 4.1 metres and 2.5 metres in diameter, with the larger of the two retaining a discernible entrance on its northern side. The third, standing slightly more intact at 0.7 metres, measures 3.5 metres across. Circular hut sites of this kind are found across the uplands of the Iveragh Peninsula, and while they are difficult to date precisely without excavation, many are associated with seasonal occupation, the herding of livestock onto higher ground during summer months, a practice known in Irish tradition as booleying. The measurements and construction style here, with walls between 0.85 and 1.3 metres thick, are consistent with that broader pattern documented across south Kerry's archaeological landscape by A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan in their 1996 survey of the Iveragh Peninsula.
The location itself is quietly legible as a practical choice. Positioned on the western side of the Gaddagh river valley with open views northward, the site would have offered reasonable shelter from prevailing south-westerly weather while keeping the surrounding terrain visible. The Gaddagh flows through the glacially carved valley below, and the slopes of Knockbrinnea above give the whole setting a sense of exposure that makes the compactness of the hut grouping feel deliberate rather than incidental.