Sat 28 Feb 2009
Ireland: The Dingle Peninsula, part 2
Posted by Ken Atherton under France, ireland, vacation
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Originally from 8/29/2005
During our vacation in Ireland, we spent a couple of days on the Dingle Peninsula, which is very rural and very old. It is filled with amazing views as well as several interesting archeological sites. We visited a few of the more interesting sites on an absolutely beautiful day.
This area is filled with drystone structures, essentially stone structures that are built without mortar. The more complex ones are shaped in a way to drain water away from the interior, so the lack of mortar doesn’t mean the structures aren’t basically waterproof.
Here is one of the structures we saw, the Gallarus Oratory:
The oratory is believed to have been built as early as the 7th century, and probably was one of the earliest churches in the area.
We also visited the beehive huts inside a small ring fort. The structures are estimated to be 4000 years old and were regularly inhabited until at least 1200CE.
The girls inside one of the beehive huts.
Not very much is known about the origins of the huts. In the latter days of their useful life, it may have been used by monastic hermits.
