Hut site in Allihies

In rough stony hill pasture, in a N-S hollow, sheltered by a ridge of outcropping rock at the W and by a steeply rising rocky hillside at the E. The remains of a circular hut site (5.3m E-W; 5.25m N-S) defined by a partially destroyed stone wall (T 1.4m; H 1.2m). The wall survives best SE-SW where it is faced internally and externally by well-constructed uncoursed masonry that encloses a fill of mainly smaller stones. Along the S arc, and at a height of 1m above ground level, the external and internal wall-faces slope (0.1m) inward. The wall SW-SE is largely collapsed, the stones from which may have been used to build a more recent linear wall that extends across the interior of the hut site from the SW arc. A break in this wall indicates an entrance into the now enclosed SE sector of the hut, which may have been used as a shelter. The wall of the rubble-covered NE sector is almost totally gone. Here, the internal foundation course of larger stones is partially intact, but only slight traces of the base stones of the external face survive. The incline in the wall along the S arc, in addition to the large volume of rubble on the ground, suggests that this may have been a corbelled hut or clochán. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009