Turf stand, Fanore More, Co. Clare

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Turf stand, Fanore More, Co. Clare

A small stone enclosure at Fanore More in County Clare was officially recorded in 1996 as a hut site, which is understandable enough at first glance.

It is rectangular, built of large flags and blocks set vertically against one another, with smaller stones wedged into the gaps. But it is not a hut site at all. It is a turf stand, a simple but carefully considered structure used for storing and drying cut peat, and its misidentification says something quietly interesting about how easily the ordinary can be mistaken for the ancient.

The structure measures roughly 2.6 metres north to south and 1.2 metres east to west internally, open at the northern end. The construction technique, large upright slabs stabilised with smaller infill stones, is well suited to the practical demands of handling turf. Cut from bogland and stacked to dry, peat needs airflow and shelter in roughly equal measure, and a roofless stone stand of this kind provides both. The Burren landscape around Fanore More, with its limestone pavements and thin soils, was historically worked hard by farming communities who made use of whatever materials the ground offered. Here, that meant stone, which is abundant, rather than timber, which is not.

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