1975:042 - INIS CEALTRA (HOLY ISLAND), Clare

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Clare Site name: INIS CEALTRA (HOLY ISLAND)

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number:

Author: L. de Paor, Department of Modern History, University College Dublin

Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure

Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)

ITM: E 569757m, N 685038m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.915327, -8.449669

A very short season was worked in 1975, in which attention was concentrated on Site 5- the area to the N of St. Caimin’s Church and the Saints’ Graveyard.

In this area, traces were found of a rectangular fenced enclosure (probably a wicker fence) around the small structure known as the “Confessional” or the “Anchorite’s Cell”. This structure, thought to be a shrine, had been repeatedly rebuilt. Traces of cultivation (probably medieval) extended to the western and northern limits of this enclosure.

Close by to the N traces were found of a round enclosure, similarly fenced. At least one small round hut was within the enclosure, which is interpreted as monastic at this stage.

Scattered burials in the area—not yet investigated—antedated both enclosures. Finds included whetstones, decorated quern fragments, a fragment of grave-slab with triquetra knot and spiral ornament, some amphora sherds from the drift surface, and late glass and pottery sherds.
The evidence from this site is provisionally being interpreted as indicating a monastic re-settlement of Inis Cealtra, about the time of Brian Boroimhe, probably after an interval (since the early ninth century?) in which the island was not occupied. Both the earlier and the later occupations appeared to have been on a small scale.

Work was continued on the doorway of St. Caimin’s, taken down in 1974. This appears to have been of four, not three, orders, and reassembly was tested in a sandpit after careful and detailed measurement of all available voussoirs.