Clochan na Carraige is the only beehive hut left intact on Inishmore – there are other clocháin on the island, but this is the one with its roof still on. Clochán means a building made entirely of stone, and this one stands in a field signposted off the road between Cill Mhuirbhigh (Kilmurvy) and Sruthán, about a kilometre north of Kilmurvy. From outside it looks oval; step in and the room is rectangular, roughly 6m by 2.3m, with two doorways set opposite each other so that whichever was out of the wind could be used. The roof is corbelled – each ring of stones laid to overhang the one below until they close overhead – and not a drop of mortar holds any of it together.
The honest part is its age: that corbelling technique was used on Aran for thousands of years, so the hut can’t really be dated. It’s usually called early Christian, and clocháin like it are often tied to pilgrimage – this one may have been a shelter for medieval pilgrims walking to nearby Teampall Bhreacáin. Tradition links it to St Colmcille, said to have come to the islands in the 6th century. Local folklore is less pious: the hut is supposed to be magic, and home to the fairies.
Visiting
It’s a National Monument, free, open at all hours and unguided – the OPW asks you to take care, since there’s nobody on site. The hut itself is a ten-minute look. The pleasure is the walk to it, across fields and stone walls, past the odd horse or cow, well away from the crowds. If you only have time for one thing on this part of the island, make it Dún Aonghasa, the great cliff fort about 1.9 km away – but the clochán is close enough to fold into the same outing, and it’s the calmer of the two.
Getting to Inishmore means a ferry, daily from Rossaveal in County Galway or from Doolin in Clare; from Kilronan, the island’s main village, the hut is about 4.5 km – an hour’s walk, or shorter by hired bike or pony-and-trap. There are no facilities at the site, so carry water and a layer against the weather, which turns fast out here. Kilmurvey, with its Blue Flag beach, is the nearest place to stop for a coffee.