Hut site, Na Gleannta Thuaidh, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a steep and rocky slope about 1.25 kilometres west of the summit of Ballysitteragh mountain in north Kerry, a small cluster of ancient stone structures sits at the kind of altitude where most builders would not bother.
What makes this group quietly remarkable is the survival of a corbelled roof on one of the smaller chambers. Corbelling is a technique in which flat stones are layered inward and upward in overlapping courses until they meet at the top, forming a dry, self-supporting ceiling without mortar. That this tiny roof has held together through Kerry winters, exposed on mountain ground, is no small thing.
The main structure is a circular drystone building, roughly 3.7 metres across and standing to about 1.25 metres in height, with walls between 0.6 and 0.8 metres thick. At some point it was modified for use as a sheep-pen, which tells its own quiet story about the long continuity of upland farming on the Dingle Peninsula. Beside it sits a much smaller corbelled chamber, likely a lamb hut, which retains its original roof. About 25 metres to the south, a second small corbelled hut survives, measuring around 2 metres in diameter and reaching a similar height to the main structure. The grouping was documented by J. Cuppage in the 1986 Corca Dhuibhne archaeological survey of the Dingle Peninsula, a systematic effort to record the extraordinary concentration of ancient monuments in this part of Ireland.