County: Kerry Site name: ILLAUNLOUGHAN, Illaunloughan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 87:36 Licence number: 92E0087
Author: Claire Walsh and Jenny White Marshall
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure and Shrine
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 436185m, N 573362m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.888330, -10.379931
A second, 10-week season of excavation took place in 1993 (Excavations 1992, 35). Further work on the areas opened in 1992 was continued and significant new areas were commenced.
A series of medieval burials, oriented east-west, in the immediate vicinity of the oratory, were excavated in 1993. Human bone is reasonably well preserved here. One was found to extend beneath the dry-stone wall of the oratory. Burials were generally placed in simple, earth-cut graves, which often were sealed with rough slabs.
Excavation of the dry-stone hut was completed in 1993, as was work on the earlier timber roundhouse. Further excavation of the associated midden was undertaken.
The reliquary shrine was excavated in 1993 in a trench measuring c. 10m x 12m. The tent-like slab structure of the shrine sat in a dry-stone leacht, which was sited on a terraced mound of rubble and gravel. The top of the mound around the shrine was paved, with steps leading from the base of the mound at the west side.
The slate slabs of the shrine were carefully removed, and excavation beneath revealed the presence of two small sealed stone cists. Each contained the stacked bones of possibly two individuals. Fragments of cranium and a mandible were also found. Also present in the fill of the cists were several whole scallop shells. Excavation of the shrine was completed in 1993.
Further excavation of the mound on the east side exposed the extended remains of at least five individuals. Several of these pre-date the paving around the central shrine, and it is apparent that the entire mound structure was utilised as a cemetery.
A further season is envisaged for 1994.
15 St. Brigid's Rd. Upr., Drumcondra, Dublin 9
