1987:25 - SCEILLIG MHICHÍL, Skellig Rock Great, Kerry

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kerry Site name: SCEILLIG MHICHÍL, Skellig Rock Great

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

Author: Ann Lynch, National Parks and Monuments Branch, Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Site type: Church and Terrace

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 424773m, N 560658m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.770774, -10.539140

Limited excavation and supervision of peat removal was carried out in June '87, thereby completing works commenced in 1986 and allowing conservation works to proceed.

Little oratory terrace
The remainder of the modern rubble and peat was removed from the terrace revealing a continuation of features exposed in '86. The southern limits of the terrace are now defined by dry-stone revetment walls linking outcrops of bedrock. Traces of steps survive which must have led down to the low-level paving which originally surrounded the oratory. The remains of a rectangular dry-stone-built structure (1.65m x 0.85m x 0.75m high), which could possibly be interpreted as a leacht, were revealed less than a metre distant from the south-west corner of the oratory. This structure appears to be coeval with the surrounding paving, revetment walls and oratory. The drain on the northern side of the oratory (originally exposed in '86) was fully cleared out. A small roofing slate, complete with perforation, was recovered from the upper levels of the fill, under the oratory plinth which suggests contemporaneity with the use of the drain and oratory.

Large oratory
Limited excavations were carried out immediately inside the entrance to the oratory to enable repairs to be carried out to the 'door jambs'. The stratigraphy revealed was broadly similar to that recorded in the south-east quadrant in '86. Traces of charcoal, burnt clay and mortar close to the present ground surface seem to belong to relatively modern times, probably when the oratory was being used by the lighthouse men. Underlying these surface layers is redeposited boulder clay (averaging 0.2-0.25m deep) resting on an old sod layer. A stone-lined post-hole was uncovered in the redeposited boulder clay just inside the doorway. The old sod layer is interpreted as the ground surface at the time of construction and the redeposited boulder clay was introduced to build up the floor level as the oratory was being constructed. The only artefact recovered was a sherd of 19th-century pottery found in the surface layers.