1992:098 - 'ST BRENDAN'S CATHEDRAL', Ardfert, Kerry

The final season in the current programme of excavations was from 27th April to 23rd June. Work was concentrated on the north side of the building and the excavation here was completed. Also excavated was a small area outside the southeast door and another to the south of the line of the external wall of the south aisle.

To the north and north-east of the 16th-century vestry 3 postholes were found under a stone spread excavated last year. These ran in an east-west direction and the most easterly posthole was cut on its south side by a large pit which pre-dated the vestry. To the south of the line of postholes and partially under the same stone spread a parch of red burning was uncovered. It measured 0.7m north-south x 0.5m east-west and the burnt material comprised a fine sandy silt, some scorched stones and a number of human bones from the base of the fill. A mottled yellow band adjoined this to the north. This band ran under the baulk on the north and west sides. It comprised a compact yellow clay and possibly represented a floor, associated with the burnt patch which may have been a hearth. The postholes could have been contemporary with this floor but an insufficient number were found to suggest the size or shape of structure involved.

A circular stone spread to the west of the yellow floor, contained within a shallow pit, may have been the foundations of a small building. It cut through the yellow floor and hearth and measured 3.6m west-east x 1.8m north-south. Under the stone spread was a clay layer and under that a layer containing charcoal, burnt bone, stone and ash. This probably represented a scattered ash deposit from a fire. This layer also ran under some large limestone flags to the west of the circular stone spread. One human skeleton was cut by the circular stone spread. This burial cut through the red hearth and yellow floor and therefore came between 2 occupation layers. It also overlay 2 other skeletons. Beneath these burials a small paved area was found in the extreme north-east of the cutting on top of the natural. The rest of this feature runs under the baulk. One of the slabs had mortar on top of it.

Work also continued in the area to the west of the vestry and here the roof line of another building is visible in the north wall of the cathedral. The foundations of a rectangular structure were found extending out from the north wall of the cathedral just west of the vestry. They measured 4.75m north- south x 3.25m east-west and ranged from 1.10m - 1.25m in thickness. The north wall of this building may originally have continued further along to the west but any evidence for it there was destroyed by later tomb building. The building can be dated to post AD 1340–1390 by a groat found in the rubble fill and it can probably be related to a layer of cobbling found at a slightly higher level during last year's excavation. The foundations were broken on the east by an unusually deep coffined burial above which were various layers of occupation material in the form of hearths with late medieval French and German pottery, sealed by a higher cobbled layer.

This cobbled layer was much finer than the lower one and covered the foundations of the 14th-century structure on the east. It may relate to the structure represented by the roof line in the north wall of the cathedral which extends slightly into the area of the vestry. This cobbling also covered a much larger area than the lower one, reaching on the west as far as the foundations of a wall, excavated last year, which extended out from the north wall of the Cathedral, 2.35m west of the north-east door. Both layers of cobbling sealed burial layers. Other finds from this area included a bronze buckle with incised decoration found outside the north-west doorway below the lower cobbling in a medieval burial layer, and a bronze stick pin from the same layer.

To the west of this area along by the early medieval masonry on the north wall of the cathedral and to the west of that again, a deep concentration of medieval burials was uncovered below the modern burial layer. The absence of shroud pins and other indicators of lateness would suggest that this side of the church was unpopular for burial in the 18th and 19th centuries. This would fit in with the custom in that period of avoiding the cold north wall of the church for burial. However a large number of infant graves were found by the north wall from medieval levels up and it is possible that the area was traditionally reserved for them, though not exclusively so.

In the south door of the cathedral a fine cobbled threshold was found 0.1m below the modern one and a stick pin associated with a medieval burial was found in the excavation outside this door.

Some further burials were uncovered at a low level to the south of the south aisle.

At this stage, apart from the vestry at the north-east end of the building, the entire cathedral has been excavated.