Beehive huts or Clocháns are dry-stone buildings dating from c.2000 BC. They are usually round in shape, but rectangular huts are known as well. What gives these huts their distinctive appearance is a building technique known as corbelling, i.e. the layering of stones, with each layer bending slightly closer and narrower towards the peak. Stones were laid with an outward and downward tilt to shed water, making these huts watertight.

Beehive huts appear to have been used for habitation. In the early middle ages (c.500-c.1000 AD), they were built to house monks and visiting pilgrims from abroad. Some of these huts are found in group clusters indicating that they housed small settlements of people. In more recent times, beehive huts were used for storage or animal shelter. Dry-stone walled churches such as 'Gallarus Oratory' in Co.Kerry, may derive from beehive huts. Constructed c.700 – c.800 AD, by Ireland’s early monastic Christians, Gallarus Oratory remains in near perfect condition to this day.