Glanfahan is a

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

on the

Dingle Peninsula The Dingle Peninsula (; anglicised as Corkaguiny or Corcaguiny, the name of the corresponding barony) is the northernmost of the major peninsulas in County Kerry. It ends beyond the town of Dingle at Dunmore Head, the westernmost point of m ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, notable for its large collection of

clochán A (plural ) or beehive hut is a dry-stone hut with a corbelled roof, commonly associated with the south-western Irish seaboard. The precise construction date of most of these structures is unknown with the buildings belonging to a long-estab ...

s, which form a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

Location

Glanfahan is located on the southern slopes of Mount Eagle, overlooking Dingle Bay, south of

Dunquin ''Dún Chaoin'' ( Irish, meaning 'pleasant fort' ), unofficially anglicised as Dunquin, is a Gaeltacht village in the west of County Kerry in the south-west of Ireland. Dunquin lies at the most westerly tip of the Dingle Peninsula (Irish: ''Cor ...

History

It is difficult to establish dates for Glenfahan as the drystone technique has been used in Ireland for millennia. However, it is believed to date to the early Christian period (5th–8th centuries AD), linked to the monastic traditions of the region and perhaps the pilgrimage route to

Skellig Michael Skellig Michael ( ), also called Great Skellig ( ), is a twin-pinnacled crag west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The island is named after the archangel Michael, with "Skellig" derived from the Irish language word , meaning ...

. Other historians place their construction in the 12th century, when Norman invaders forced the

Gaelic Irish The Gaels ( ; ; ; ) are an Insular Celtic ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaeli ...

to peripheral areas like the Dingle Peninsula. It has been theorised that the huts were inhabited by the unfree and cashels by the freemen. Some Irish cashels remained in occupation up to the 18th century AD. In the 19th century a cross-slab and rotary

quern Quern () is a former municipality in the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Since 1 March 2013, it has been part of the municipality of Steinbergkirche Steinbergkirche () is a municipality in the district of ...

were found in Cahermurphy. Some of the archeological sites were damaged in the 20th century by agricultural "improvements." Excavations in 2011–12 under "Clochaun 3" turned up a

sharpening stone Sharpening stones, or whetstones, are used to sharpening, sharpen the edges of steel tools such as knife, knives through grinding and Honing (metalworking), honing. Such stones come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and material compositions. ...

hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...

and pieces of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

. Bone finds included

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s (with

flensing Flensing is the removing of the blubber or outer integument of whales, separating it from the animal's meat. Processing the blubber (the subcutaneous fat) into whale oil was the key step that transformed a whale carcass into a stable, transpor ...

marks) and fish, as well as a

wrasse The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine ray-finned fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, ...

tooth of a kind used in

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word , which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects a perso ...

Bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

shells and

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus '' Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according to ...

shells were also found.

Description

There are 417 recorded dry stone structures, 19

souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ', meaning "subterrain", is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northwards from Gaul d ...

s and 18

standing stones A menhir (; from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the European middle Br ...

in the area. A group of

s, built in a traditional

corbelling In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

style, form an abandoned village.

Caherconner

An oval-shaped stone cashel containing three beehive huts.

Cahermurphy

An oval stone cashel in diameter. The interior is occupied by a group of five conjoined clochauns and a sixth irregularly-shaped structure.

Caherfadaandoruis

An unusual cluster with three conjoined chambers, joined by a passage long.

Caheradurras

A triple clochaun.

Clochanmore

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in County Kerry National monuments in County Kerry