Hut site

The National Monuments Service's description

This sub-rectangular structure, 3m by 5.4m internally, is probably a hut-site and is incorporated within a little complex of field boundaries that form a distinct settlement pattern. Some of the interior wall courses survive, particularly at the north and south. The south wall is 0.8m in maximum height and some 0.3m of external facing in this area indicates a wall thickness of 1.15m. The interior corners are concave in plan. Though the whole structure is littered with rubble and wall-collapse, two opposed depressions midway along the east and west walls may indicate the position of entrances. Two small fields abut this structure to the west and south, and to the north, an area 3.5 by 6m internally is delimited by upright slabs and wall collapse. The remains of a field wall curve from this last to the inner enclosure to the north. The manner in which the outer enclosure wall terminates midway along the east boundary of the small field to the south of this structure and curves away from its south-west corner suggests that it and the adjacent fields were in existence prior to the construction of this section of enclosure wall. (Walsh 1983, 55, Fig. 18, E.)

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 2 February 2014

References

Walsh, P. 1983 The monastic settlement on Rathlin O'Birne Island, County Donegal. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 113, 53-66.