1993:120 - COARHA MORE, Valentia Island, Kerry

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kerry Site name: COARHA MORE, Valentia Island

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0120

Author: Alan Hayden, Archaeological Projects Ltd.

Site type: Hut site

Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)

ITM: E 437784m, N 573662m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.891491, -10.356853

Excavation was undertaken over a two-week period in September 1993. Funding was arranged by Professor G.F. Mitchell and provided by Trinity College, Dublin.

The site lies 13m from the fulacht fiadh excavated by Sheehan and published in Buckley, V. (ed.) (1990) Burnt Offerings.

An area measuring 7m x 6m was excavated. The remains of a polygonal stone hut with a stone walled annex were uncovered. The walls survived to above the level of the lintel of the doorway that occurred in its west side - a height of over 1m. The roof of the hut was supported on the wall and on a centrally set post. The roof of the annex could have been corbelled.

The hut was built in a cut made into the bog and the surface of the rise to its north. Drains in the floor of the hut lead water away under its south wall to a larger drain outside the hut.

The remains of burnt timbers, charcoal, a worked timber object, flint waste flakes, as well as four sherds of grass-marked (Bronze Age?) pottery were found on the floor of the hut.

A number of samples were taken for C14 analysis and a pollen core was taken from the bog to the south of the hut and since the initial report was written, dates have been returned for the burnt timber on the floor of the hut of 766 + 20 BC and dates of 796 + 20 BC were returned for both timber containing bark on the floor of the hut and for charcoal from the construction level outside the hut.

The hut appears to have been built at a similar level to the nearby excavated fulacht fiadh and further discussion on their relationship would be premature until the dating of the hut is determined.

15 St. Brigid's Rd. Upr., Drumcondra, Dublin 9