EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

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inside and on top of the cists and. One shell produced a date range from the eighth to the
eleventh century (see below).
Phase 2 dated to the eighth and ninth centuries and comprised a dry-stone hut (D), dry-stone
oratory, a stone reliquary shrine and burials (Fig. 165). Hut D was situated on the southwestern
edge of the island and built up against rock ridge traversing the western end of the
island. It was a sunken-floored circular structure, 4.3-4.4m diameter with corbelled walls
intact to a maximum height of 2.3m on its western side and a possible internal hearth. Cattle
bone recovered from under the base of the north-western side of the hut gave a construction
date in the eighth/ninth century (see below), though a date later than the early-ninth century
was viewed as improbable by the excavators from associated burial evidence.
An extensive refuse midden was associated with Hut D. It was considerably greater than
those from Phase 1 huts and indicates a long period of occupation. A succession of rough
paved pathways or small yards outside the eastern entrance of Hut D sealed intervening
deposits of the midden. A small undated well consisting of seven dry-stone steps leading
down to a pool of water, was excavated between Hut D and the dry-stone oratory though
yielded nothing of significance.
The principal phase 2 ecclesiastical structures consisted of a dry-stone oratory, an integrated
stone leacht and a gable shaped shrine surrounded by a raised rectangular mound. Phase 2
burial appears to have moved away from the dry-stone oratory to the eastern quadrant of the
gable shrine.
Phase 3 dated to the late medieval period and consisted of the re-use of the dry-stone
oratory and Hut D and approximately 25 burials in the space between both buildings. In this
period, the western oratory doorway was blocked and a door cut in the eastern wall. Two
stone-lined pits at the oratory’s eastern end had ironworking evidence. Ash and charcoal
deposits from Hut D interior also confirmed fifteenth-seventeenth-century post-monastic
occupation (see below).
Phase 4 dated to the post-medieval period and consisted of the use of the western end of the
island around Hut D as a ceallunach (‘infant burial ground’). Over 100 discrete burials were
identified. The interior of the dry-stone hut was also used for four burials in this period.
The majority of the early medieval finds from the site consisted of typical domestic artefacts,
with many recovered from midden deposits associated with Hut D. Finds from the site
included iron knives, barrel-padlock keys, shears, awls and punches, twenty six circular bone
beads, bone comb fragments, bone pins, three glass beads, a quernstone (or possible cross
shaft), spindle-whorls, polished stone bracelets, perforated stones and a large number of
whet-stones. A number of Hiberno-Scandinavian artefacts (e.g. a silver Viking coin (c. 1020-
35), a perforated whet-stone, a hollow bone cylinder and a suspension mechanism for a
balance) were also recovered.
The monastic settlement may have lasted for only 150-200 years from the mid/late-seventh
century to the mid-ninth century. The community was engaged in fine metalworking and had
a mixed arable/dairying/maritime economy with evidence for domesticated cereals (mainly
oats followed by wheat), cattle, sheep and pig and wild deer, shellfish, seal, fish and birds.
After the monastery fell out of use, the island was then primarily used as a cemetery in the
late- and post-medieval periods with some evidence for the re-use of the two dry-stone
buildings.
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