Hut site, Oughtmama, Co. Clare

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Oughtmama, Co. Clare

On the eastern summit of Turlough Hill in County Clare, a barely-there outline in the grass marks something that could easily be walked over without a second thought.

It is a small square hut site, roughly four metres by four metres, its stone walls reduced over centuries to a spread of rubble no more than forty centimetres high. What makes it quietly arresting is its position: pressed against the inner south-western face of a large hexagonal enclosure, one of several such hut sites arranged around the interior perimeter of that boundary wall.

The hexagonal enclosure itself is an unusual form in the Irish archaeological landscape, where circular or sub-circular enclosures are far more common. The hut sits within this larger structure on Turlough Hill, near Oughtmama, a townland in the Burren that is better known for its cluster of early medieval churches in the valley below. The relationship between the hilltop enclosure and those ecclesiastical remains is not spelled out, but the presence of multiple hut sites tucked against the inside of the enclosure wall suggests a community of some kind once sheltered here, their small stone cells sharing the shelter of the outer boundary, much as monastic enclosures elsewhere in Ireland arranged domestic or devotional structures around an inner perimeter. The walls of this particular hut, at one metre thick, are substantial relative to the structure's footprint, which points to something built to endure rather than a temporary shelter.

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Pete F
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