1992:092 - OMEY ISLAND, Goreen and Sturakeen, Galway

Excavations, funded by the OPW, of a multi-period site exposed by sea erosion on a 5m high sand cliff revealed a rich and well-stratified, though complex, sequence of activity ranging in date from at least the Early Christian period, and possibly prehistory, to the 19th century. Buried under 4m of sand and later archaeological levels, the centrepiece of the site is a small Early Christian enclosure, probably the remains of the monastery known to have been founded on the island by St Feighin in the early 7th century.

The earliest level identified on the site is a thin midden deposit exposed beneath the cliff at beach level; it is evidently prehistoric in date but more exact dating for this level, and indeed for the other levels on the site, is not yet available. Above it and separated from it by about 1 m of blown sand are east-west pit burials, 6 of which have so far been identified. There is no definite evidence of an associated enclosure. These burials in turn are stratified 0.5m below a stone-walled enclosure of rectangular plan, internally 13.5m long and at least 7.5m wide. Comparative evidence suggests a monastic or eremetical context and a date in the 7th century for this enclosure. Contained within the enclosure are burials in typical Early Christian grave types. One of the graves was subsequently (9th-10th century?) marked by a dry-stone leacht or altar, and it may be interpreted as the special grave.

The erection of the leacht marks the end of the rectangular enclosure as a place of burial. In subsequent centuries the interior of the enclosure became filled with a deposit (1.5m thick in places) of blown sand and domestic refuse, and many of the wall stones were robbed. The leacht itself was not structurally damaged, but all except the very top of it seems to have become buried under the later deposits. Around the turn of the millennium the site was re-edified; a platform of trapezoidal plan, with the largely-buried leacht off-centre within it, was created directly on top of the original enclosure by cutting away at the build-up of sand and rubbish and revering. Later still—possibly in the 12th or 13th century—a new, mortared leacht was erected directly on top of the original leacht. In subsequent centuries this leacht also became buried in blown sand. Late in the middle ages a cemetery containing at least 50 individuals in pits and lintelled graves was cut into that blown sand. There were evidently no surface traces of this late cemetery by 1800 when at least 3 houses were built on the site.

102 Palmerstown Drive, Dublin 20