Hut site, Scarteen, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On the south-facing slopes of Knockleama in south-west Kerry, a small D-shaped outline in the rough hill grazing marks what was once a dwelling or shelter, its stone walls now tumbled and low.
The structure measures just 3.1 metres north to south, defined by a collapsed wall roughly 0.7 metres thick and standing no more than 0.4 metres high, with a notably straight north side extending 3.5 metres. That straight edge, giving the plan its D-shape rather than the more common oval, is one of those small details that makes a site quietly arresting once you know to look for it.
The hut does not sit in isolation. It forms part of a broader field system on a peaty terrace on the hillside, and field walls butt up against it on both the west and east sides, suggesting the structure was integrated into an organised agricultural landscape rather than being a lone outlier. Approximately 38 metres to the east lies a separate enclosure, a feature that may have served as a stock pound or small farmyard. Hut sites of this kind, typically stone-walled and modest in scale, appear across Kerry's uplands and are associated with seasonal or permanent occupation during the early medieval period, though precise dating without excavation remains difficult. The peaty ground around Knockleama would have offered rough grazing rather than arable land, pointing to a pastoral way of life for whoever built and used these structures.