Indicated — Killagurteen

Internal diam. 19m N-S, 18.5m E-W This heavily overgrown caher is located in a thicket on a gentle S lacing slope which overlooks Lough Currane to SW. The site consists of a well-preserved enclosing wall featuring a mural chamber, and a circular hut and a possible souterrain occur in its interior. The wall, faced externally and internally, encloses a rubble core and is 2.3m wide. It is preserved up to 1.5m high externally, 1.3m high internally and features a low step along its inner face. This step or terrace is .3m wide and varies in height from .3m, along the NW sector, to .7m at S. At NNW two slabs protrude from the inner wall-face, .77m and .92m above the step, and these may have served to facilitate access to the wall-top. A partially collapsed stone-faced entrance is located at SW; it is .55m wide at its outer edge and measures .65m wide internally. This is a rectangular mural chamber at NW, where the width of the wall is increased somewhat to accommodate it. This has a slightly splayed lintelled entrance, partially blocked, in the external wall-face of the caher. The entrance is 1.45m high and is trabeate in form, narrowing to .45m wide at its top. Upright slabs and slabs set on edge line the base of the mural chamber, above which its walls are regularly coursedand slightly corbelled. It is roofed with large lintels, and measures 1.75m x 1.25m and 1.54m in height. The collapsed remains of a substantial circular hut (KE098-023001-), 3.8m in internal diameter, are located in the SW quadrant of the caher's interior. Stone facing enclosing a rubble core is visible from N to SE, and the entrance is obscured by collapse. A band of stone collapse extends E for 4m from the external face of the hut. Also located in the SW quadrant is a shallow L-shaped trench, which varies in width from .7m to 1.75m. It contains a fill of stone collapse, but short stretches of coursed walling are visible at its sides. This trench probably represents the souterrrain (KE098-023002-) noted at this site by O'Connell (1939a, 28). 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. 598. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 29 July 2013