Booley hut

The National Monuments Service's description

This is one of eight huts (MA084-004001- to MA084-004008-) ranged in a cluster around the N and NE sides of a small natural basin or fold, through which a stream flows, on the lower SW slopes of Knockmore. A notable feature of this cluster is that the huts tend to occur in pairs. The location is locally named ‘Prawke’, and, according to tradition, the huts were associated with booleying. This hutsits on N slopes of the basin at its extreme north-western end. Another hut (MA084-004002-) lies slightly down- slope 2m to SSE. The remains comprise a small shallow hut hollow, roughly square in plan (N–S 2.2m, E–W 2.4 internally). It is defined on its northern and eastern sides by low scarps (H 0.5m max.) but its limits on the southern side are unclear, save for a large stone (L 0.6m × Wth 0.5m) in the south-eastern corner. The western side is defined by a low stone wall (Wth 0.6m × H 0.1m) including a number of rectangular blocks whose long axes are set E–W and a large stone at the north-western corner. Faint traces of a robbed-out turf stack lie immediately to W.

The above description is derived from: New Survey of Clare Island. Volume 5: Archaeology. Edited by Paul Gosling, Conleth Manning and John Waddell. (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. 2007). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated.

Date of upload: 29 November 2018