AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

Galway
sectioned ditch, 1.22m wide at the top, 0.18m wide at the base and 0.67m deep, was
revealed outside the enclosure wall to the east of House I and contained occasional scattered
cockle and periwinkle shells and meat bones. However, no evidence for this external ditch
was uncovered in an excavated section nearby, to the south of House I.
There was extensive evidence for domestic structures and internal divisions within the site.
The site’s interior was divided up into fifteen or sixteen sub-enclosures by radial and other
walls, surviving now as grass-covered mounds, c. 0.3m high. The remains of c. ten houses
were traced in the interior; traces of six or seven of these were identified in the peripheral
sub-enclosures to the south and east and a further two or three at the west. The remains of
a souterrain, comprising a hollow area, c. 9m by 4m, delimited by upright side stones, were
visible at the west side of the interior.
Three rectangular houses with externally rounded corners (I-III) and adjacent sections of the
enclosure wall were excavated in the southeastern quadrant of the site and produced a wide
range of finds dating from the early medieval period to modern times. The artefacts found
within these buildings do not provide precise dates for their domestic occupation. House II
was clearly a later building constructed and used probably well into the post-medieval period.
The two other structures are at least medieval in date, and possibly even earlier, though
post-medieval finds were also found. Many of these buildings in the interior of the enclosure
appear to have been occupied by squatters in the later medieval and post-medieval periods
after the ecclesiastical site had fallen out of use.
House I was rectangular in shape with externally rounded corner and measured c. 7m x
3.96m internally. Its walls abutted the inner face of the enclosure wall at the east and were
constructed with rubble masonry, surviving to two courses high. A quern fragment was
incorporated into the west wall and a small fragment of window? glass was found in the core.
Finds from the floor of the house included a quern fragment, a tenth-fourteenth century
knife, corroded iron nails and other fragments and pieces of slate. A kidney-shaped pit was
located in the eastern half of the building and contained occasional oyster shells and charcoal
pieces.
The trenches to the north and south of House I produced evidence for a wide range of early
medieval artefacts and other features. A tenth-fourteenth century knife was found
immediately outside the north wall of House I and a fragment of a decorated quern stone
was also uncovered beside a concentration of shell. An ‘occupation layer’ of dark humus to
the north of House I also contained a wide range of finds including early medieval bronze and
iron-pins, a small mount of sheet bronze with an engraved chequer-board pattern, a stone
hone, possible loom-weight, iron nails and pieces of slag. Other features to the north of
House I included three pits containing shell, bone and charcoal.
House III was a drystone-built structure with external dimensions of 6.4m x 4.27m. The walls
were 0.97m-1.22m wide and survived to one or to two courses high of rubble masonry. Find
included iron slag and an early medieval bone die just outside the northeast wall. The
southeast wall of the house was built inside the enclosure wall and ‘the house may date from
the period in which the enclosure wall was ruinous’. The finds from the occupation layer
indicate a wide date range and include a bronze strap mount, possibly of medieval date, a
sherd of fifteenth or sixteenth green glazed pottery, three crucible fragments, slag, clay-pipe
stems and a flint flake. A black occupation soil between the external angle of the northeast
house wall and the enclosure wall contained bones, shells, an early medieval bone die and a
possible knife.
House II was a long, rectangular drystone-built structure located to the southeast of the
church and the cemetery enclosure. The building had internal dimensions of 15.9m x 4.27m
and was in a poorly preserved condition, containing a single wall course of faced stones and a
core. House II did not belong to the primary occupation of the site and its walls were built on
or into an earlier dark occupation horizon. The finds from this building also range in date
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