County: Kerry Site name: CAHERLEHILLAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 70:43 Licence number: 93E0073
Author: John Sheehan, Dept. of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Ecclesiastic enclosure
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 457080m, N 583460m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.984786, -10.080782
Excavations which began in 1992 at this site continued over a six-week period in June–July 1994 as part of the undergraduate training programme of the Department of Archaeology, University College, Cork. The site consists of an early ecclesiastical enclosure with a ceallúnach in its north-east quadrant. The excavation in 1994 was confined to Cuttings 1, 2 and 3.
Cutting 1 is located in the ceallúnach portion of the site. By the end of the 1994 season the lowest level of the ceallúnach had been reached and three distinct levels of burials had been identified. The earliest contained both stone-lined and earth-cut graves, the second features only stone-lined examples, while the third and most recent level of burials contained only earth-cut graves with some remains of coffins. Beneath the ceallúnach levels is a layer of hill-washed material, similar to that found in Cuttings 2 and 3 in 1992 (Context 4) which presumably seals Early Medieval layers beneath.
Excavations in Cutting 2 and 2a continued and further stakeholes and a linear cut were revealed. All are cut into Context 96, an orange subsoil.
The excavation of two soil layers, Contexts 28 and 30, continued in Cutting 3 and further quantities of imported Early Medieval pottery were recovered. Beneath these levels, cut into Context 130, several post- and stakeholes were revealed.
Excavations in Cuttings 1-3 will be completed in 1995.
