Beehive Hut at Fahan
The beehive hut in county Kerry seems to be a signature architectural style here. The most famous ones are probably the clusters in Skellig Michael, but that doesn’t mean it was the only one. Apparently, there was another one in the mainland and it was in the Dingle Peninsula. The Slea Head driver provides a perfect way to explore the peninsula. The beehive hut is actually hidden behind what appears to be a house. It seems that they struck gold by having the huts near their place. I don’t know if it is legal to own such prehistoric structures but they charge an entrance fee for it.
Beehive Hut Complex at Fahan
They don’t provide a guided tour but they provide you with a leaflet to tell you what you are seeing. What they don’t know is how old the huts are. It is difficult to date these structures officially called clochán. The style of laying one stone on top of the other, called corbelling, has been used in Newgrange which was built 5000 years ago, to as recently as 1950. With such a large error margin, experts couldn’t agree on a date. The prevailing wisdom is that these might be from the 12th century. The huts here seems to be quite extensive, probably as extensive as the one in Skellig Michael, though not as pretty. Some of the huts don’t have roofs anymore.
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