Visit Beehive Huts, Dingle Peninsula, Kerry, Ireland

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The hillside along the Slea Head Drive in the townland of Fahan is littered with Clocháns, or BEEHIVE HUTS. At one stage there were over 400 of these drystone, corbelled huts surviving, prompting one antiquarian in the 19th century to refer to the area as the "City of Fahan". These structures occur as single units or can also be found within stone fort complexes. They are generally believed to have been habitation sites, although the tradition of such buildings continued up to the early 20th century for storage purposes. Dating the huts is difficult because the skill of corbelling has been used in Newgrange (3100 BC) and as recently as the 1950s. The huts along the Slea Head Drive may well date to the 12th century when the incoming Normans forced the Irish off the good land and out to the periphery of the peninsula.

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