Hut site, Meall Na Mbreac, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the slopes of Meall Na Mbreac in south-west Kerry, tucked within the curve of an ancient enclosure wall, sits a small D-shaped structure that most walkers would step over without a second glance.
Its drystone wall, roughly half a metre thick and just over half a metre high, traces a flat northwestern edge before curving around to meet the enclosure's own boundary. The whole interior measures only about a metre and a half across its longest axis. It is not a dramatic ruin, but that modesty is part of what makes it worth attention.
The hut sits deliberately against the western arc of a larger enclosure, an arrangement that would have offered some shelter and shared the enclosure's boundary as a structural element, saving the labour of building a complete freestanding wall. Drystone construction of this kind, stones laid without mortar and relying on careful placement for stability, is found across Kerry's uplands and can be notoriously difficult to date without excavation. What the site does confirm is that it was not alone: a second hut lies in the south-western quadrant of the same enclosure, suggesting this was a small settlement or working space of some kind rather than a single isolated shelter. Two structures sharing one enclosure implies at minimum a degree of planning, and possibly repeated seasonal use by people grazing animals or working the land on these Kerry hillsides.