1975:055 - CARNSORE, Wexford

Excavations here were necessitated by development plans of the Electricity Supply Board, who financed the work.

St. Vogue’s Church and Enclosure (Site I)
St. Vogue’s Church is a small building (9.48m x 4.7m) rectangular in plan and set within a large D-shaped enclosure, the limits of which are defined by an earthen bank. The original shape of this enclosure was possibly circular or oval, but a modern track way cuts through its E edge giving the enclosure its present shape.

The area within the enclosure and the church was fully excavated, and four main phases of activity were recognised.

Phase 1: Evidence of an early wooden building, in the form of postholes, was found, partly underlying the stone church. A total of 29 postholes and seven stakeholes were found inside the stone church and seven postholes were uncovered immediately to the N and S of the stone church.

Both the postholes and stakeholes were cut into the undisturbed subsoil and were overlain by a thick layer of carbonised wood and charcoal. The bright red oxidised soil suggested a period of intense burning, possibly the burning down of the wooden building. Unfortunately, because of the overlying stone church, the complete plan of any one wooden structure could not be determined. However the outline of a small rectangular building (2.25m x 1.5m) may be tentatively suggested. The complete absence of domestic refuse in this immediate area suggests that it was not a domestic structure and on analogy with other such sites the likelihood is that it was a small oratory.

Further evidence of activity was uncovered in the SE quadrant of the enclosure, in the form of shallow trenches, postholes and burnt areas. The structural relationship between the enclosing bank and the internal features was difficult to determine but the weight of the evidence suggests that it belongs to this phase. Three samples of charcoal from this phase have been submitted to the Harwell Laboratories for C14 dating and are listed below.

Phase 2: The basal courses of the original stone church were uncovered directly overlying the features of Phase 1. The narrow window opening in the E gable appears to belong to the original stone church and the base of the original stone altar was also uncovered.

Excavation of the SE and SW quadrants revealed traces of domestic habitation. Approximately 4m SE of the church, the stone foundations of a rectangular house were uncovered. Immediately outside the E wall of the house, a large spread of limpet and periwinkle shells were revealed. Also, the great bulk of pottery recovered from the site as a whole was concentrated in the areas immediately outside the house walls and in the interior of the house itself. The most common type of pot represented is a shallow dish made from a very coarse gritty clay mix- many of the sherds being coated with carbonised soot. Literary evidence and the evidence supplied by various pottery types suggest a date of not earlier than the 15th century for this phase.

Phase 3: Over the past 200-300 years, the enclosure and the interior of the church have been used as the burial places for bodies washed up in the nearby shore. Seventeen burials were found in the enclosure and a further ten were recovered from the interior of the church. Fragments of military uniforms, buttons and leather boots and shoes were recovered from some of the burials.

Phase 4: In the 1940s, the walls of the church were rebuilt and the outer edges of the E gable were repaired. A flat-headed window in the S wall was repaired and the N doorway was rebuilt over the site of the original one. The upper part of the altar was also rebuilt. In the NE part of the enclosure, a small area has been fenced off recently for use as a garden and the E and SE areas were also damaged in the construction of a garden area.

St. Vogue’s Well (Site 2)
The site of St. Vogue’s Well, 140m E. of the church was also investigated. The area has been greatly disturbed over the years- even to a depth of 2m below the bottom of the well. Very little of the original well survives and no finds were recovered.

Site of Dolmen (Site 3)
At the time of the Ordnance Survey (1840s) fragments of a very ruined stone structure existed almost on the cliff edge at Carnsore Point. The area indicated on the map was excavated but no trace of the structure was found. It is quite likely that over the past 150 years sea erosion may have removed whatever remained on it.

Appendix: Radio Carbon dates from Phase 1- St. Vogue’s Church
(a) Har-1380 Age bp 1290 ±80
(b) Har-1382 Age bp 1390 ±80

(No corrections have been applied).

Sample (a) consisted of charcoal from three adjacent postholes belonging to the postulated oratory. Sample (b) consisted of charcoal from a Phase 1 trench, part of a complex of features associated with the oratory. The dates confirm the suggested Early Christian date for the oratory. They also suggest that there was a considerable lapse of time between the destruction of Phase 1 and the building of the stone church.