Hut site, Tooreenmore, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Tooreenmore, Co. Kerry

In the boggy pasture below the slopes of Bawnduff, at the quiet upper reaches of the Carhan river valley, a small stone structure sits in various degrees of collapse.

It is circular, corbelled, and built without mortar; a corbelled hut being one where courses of flat stones are laid so that each projects slightly inward over the one below, gradually closing the roof into a dome without the need for timber or any binding material. This one measures just 4.3 metres across and survives to a height of only 0.9 metres, with walls nearly two metres thick, which gives some sense of how solid the original construction must have been. The northeast sector has suffered the most from collapse, but enough remains to read the form clearly.

Structures of this type are found across the Iveragh Peninsula in some number, and they sit within a long tradition of drystone building in the west of Ireland that stretches back through the early medieval period and possibly further. Whether any individual example dates to the early Christian centuries, the later medieval period, or represents the work of more recent pastoral farming is often difficult to determine without excavation; corbelling as a technique persisted in vernacular use well into the post-medieval era, particularly for small field shelters and animal enclosures. The thickness of the walls at Tooreenmore, at 1.9 metres, suggests a building meant to endure rather than serve some temporary seasonal purpose, though the boggy ground around it hints at a landscape that has always been marginal and difficult to work.

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Pete F
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