Royal "winter hall" - Cnoc Rhua

33-metres in diametre (on the very top as seen here) with at least two hearths, two entrances... one facing west, the other southeast... and an obvious royal raised bed-platform by one of the hearths and near the rear SE exit/entrance. Stone-lined food/grain storage pits flank either side of the rear entrance.To access the hall, one would have to first enter through a guarded gate in the wooden palisade defined by the outer, prominent ring (entrance by the large stone seen here to the right) and then proceed up to the hall's main western entrance, which is on the upper left side of the mound. There is a small water spring just to the rear and inside the palisade, augmenting the main year-round spring at the summit of this hill... and adjacent to protective 35-metre-diametre stone hillfort that is retreated to during raids.Otherwise this hall was residence for more than 60 people in an extended household, with upright wooden walls (possibly with a yurt-like woven lattice helping keep it together and sealed against weather) and a huge conical thatched roof.Summer quarters were open tents for the royalty, up on the summit of Cnoc Rhua. This hall is on a protected plateau below and to the east of the summit, with a view to Lough Gur, Knockfennel and Grange Hill in the far background, about six kilometres away.
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