Hut site in Strake

Within ‘Doon’ promontory fort (MA084-005001-): on the summit of the natural outcrop of rock at the extreme western the end of the platform (Pl. III, labelled ‘e’). There are also two other houses (MA084-005003- , MA084-005004-) on the platform. On the detailed drawings of this fort, Westropp employs the letter ‘e’ to identify a small semicircular feature that he labels ‘hut’ on his plan (Pl. III). However, he does not expressly refer to it as a hut in his descriptions. Rather, he treats it and the outcrop on which it sits as some kind of a lookout post dominating the access path that skirts its W side. This is most clearly stated in his 1914 description, where he refers to the artificial shaping of the ‘rock turret’, noting that ‘the bastion so-formed was fenced by a loop of wall 3 or 4 feet [0.9–1.2m] thick’ (1914, 328). No definite surface trace of this ‘loop of wall’ survives today on the grassy summit of the outcrop. 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