What is recorded here

Indicated is a steep mountain hut site in County Kerry where St Buonia may have watched the Skelligs rise from the bay. One round stone chamber still stands with a lintelled door, hidden niches and small holes that may have held a shutter or rope. The Glen feels less like a ruin and more like a forgotten kitchen of saints, where prayer, hunger and weather were all shaped by the same hands.

KE088-027004- is located on a fairly steep, S facing slope of Knocknaskereighta mountain, towards the head of a broad valley which is locally known as ‘The Glen’. It affords excellent views to St Finan’s Bay and the Skelligs at W. The site is associated with St Buonia (Beoanigh), who is locally reputed to have been a sister of St Patrick. It has also been suggested that the site was founded by St Brendan or by St Beoanus, his disciple (O’Donoghue 1893, 280-3). Permission to survey the site was refused, and the following description is based on summary notes and the accounts published of it by Lynch (1902a) and Henry (1957). Circular Huts: (1) (KE088-027002-) This well-preserved hut is partly built into the W end of the upper terrace (KE088-027017-). Of corbelled drystone construction, it measures 5.8m in internal diameter and its walls stand to a maximum internal height of 2.4m. A wall-niche occurs at N, and at SE is a lintelled doorway, 1.65m high, with inclining jambs. Above the lintel on the inner face are two projecting stones, each with a circular perforation, which served to secure a timber door frame. A number of stones protrude from the external face of the wall, one of which, N of the doorway and just below the level of its lintel, has a circular depression near one end. This may have served to hold the base of a shutter for a now destroyed window. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 954. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 July 2013

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.