Hut site, Tuar Sáilín, Co. Kerry

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Settlement Sites

Hut site, Tuar Sáilín, Co. Kerry

On the lower slopes of Coomacarrea, overlooking the valley of the Owroe River, a rough circle of tumbled stone sits quietly on the hillside.

It measures just three metres across, its wall now reduced to a jumbled scatter of rubble no more than forty centimetres high and roughly seventy centimetres thick. Small enough to seem almost incidental against the scale of the surrounding upland, it is the kind of structure that could easily be walked past without a second thought.

What survives at Tuar Sáilín is a hut site, the collapsed remains of what was once a small circular stone building. Structures of this type are found across Irish uplands and are associated with a range of uses over a very long period, from prehistoric settlement to the seasonal shelters used by those who brought livestock to summer grazing on higher ground, a practice known as booleying. The south-facing aspect of this particular slope, catching whatever warmth the Kerry hills offer, would have made it a sensible location for a temporary dwelling. The rubble scattered around the outer edge of the wall suggests the structure has been deteriorating in place for a considerable time, with stones gradually working their way outward from the original line.

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Pete F
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