Hut site

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, located on top of Twomilestone ridge. This is the approximate location of a hut site first recorded by Davies (1942, 100). It is one of several hut sites (see also DG103-057005-, DG103-059----, DG103-060----, DG107-004003-) he found on the ridge. He designated it as ‘hut k’ and described it as a ‘small hollow 13 ft. (c. 4m) across and less than a foot ( 0.3m) deep, apparently surrounded by a ring of stones and perhaps artificial; it may have been a pit-dwelling or something similar.’ It was published by the Donegal Survey (Lacy et al. 1983, 154, no. 922) as follows: ‘Internal diam. 5.83m. A circular area enclosed by a bank of clay and small stones .25m high destroyed on its S-SE sector. It is situated on the S side of Two Mile Ridge close to several other hut sites. (Davies site K).’ An inspection of the area was undertaken in 2015. At roughly the location shown on Davies’s map there is a shallow, subcircular grass-covered depression (6m NE−SW; 4m NW−SW). There is no visible evidence of an enclosing wall. Abutting it on the W side is a circular cropmark (diam. c. 4m), and c. 4m to SW is a cluster of three slight depressions or subcircular undulations (max. dims. c. 3-4m), none of which is defined by stones. It is unclear if any of these features represents the remnants of the hut site recorded by Davies.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 5 September 2016

References

Davies, O. 1942 The Twomile stone, a prehistoric community in County Donegal. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 72, 98-105.

Lacy, B. with Cody, E., Cotter, C., Cuppage, J., Dunne, N., Hurley, V., O'Rahilly, C., Walsh, P. and Ó Nualláin, S. 1983 Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century A.D. Lifford. Donegal County Council.