Hut site, Scarteen, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Settlement Sites
On a south-facing slope between two Kerry mountains, nine small stone structures sit low against the hillside, none of them rising more than a couple of courses above the ground.
They are easy to miss, and that is partly the point. Built from boulders rather than dressed stone, these are the kind of remains that reward a slow eye rather than a quick glance, the sort of archaeology that asks you to crouch and look rather than stand back and admire.
The site lies midway between Knocklomena and Boughil on the Iveragh Peninsula, that long arm of southwest Kerry better known for dramatic coastal scenery than for upland fieldwork. The complex comprises nine structures, some circular in plan, with internal diameters ranging from roughly 1.3 metres to 3.9 metres. The smaller dimensions suggest storage or shelter rather than permanent habitation, and the enclosures scattered among them point toward pastoral farming use, the kind of seasonal activity that would have brought people and animals into the hills when lower ground was needed for other purposes. Old field walls survive nearby, lending weight to the idea that this was a working landscape rather than a settlement in any permanent sense. The construction is crude by any architectural measure, which is itself informative: these are not prestige buildings but functional ones, put up quickly and maintained only as long as they were needed.