Hut site, Scarteen, Co. Kerry

Co. Kerry |

Settlement Sites

Hut site, Scarteen, Co. Kerry

On a south-facing slope between two Kerry mountains, nine small stone structures sit in various states of near-disappearance.

Built from boulders and surviving in most cases to no more than a course or two of stonework, they are easy to overlook, the kind of remains that read as rubble until you begin to count the outlines and realise something deliberate was once arranged here.

The site lies on the Iveragh Peninsula, midway between Knocklomena and Boughil, and forms a loose complex of huts and enclosures. The internal diameters of the structures range from roughly 1.3 metres to 3.9 metres, which places the smaller ones at the scale of a tight storage cell and the larger at something a person might have sheltered in temporarily. The enclosures, which are distinct from the hut structures themselves, are thought to relate to farming activity rather than permanent habitation, a pattern consistent with the booley tradition of seasonal upland grazing that was once common across Ireland, where families or herders moved livestock to higher ground in summer and built rough shelters accordingly. Old field walls remain visible in the immediate vicinity, suggesting that the landscape around the site was once more intensively managed than its current appearance might suggest.

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Pete F
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