County: Kerry Site name: COARHABEG, Valentia Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 94E0120
Author: Alan Hayden, Archaeological Projects Ltd.
Site type: Clochan
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 434885m, N 575861m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.910395, -10.399992
The site lies in the vicinity of a number of later Bronze Age and Iron Age field boundaries and trackways, in an area of cut-away bog. The site survived as a rectangular mound of stone capped by a thin layer of peat. Excavation was undertaken over a two-week period in September 1994. An area measuring a maximum of 11.2m by 10.2m was cleared of peat and excavated.
A trapezoidal stone-walled structure with a long stone-lined and originally stone-roofed entrance passage was uncovered. It measured 3.4m by 1.6–2.8m across internally. Two further rectangular stone-walled cells backed onto it. The walls of the cells and the entrance passageway had flat slabs set upright on their internal faces backed by the usual horizontally laid masonry.
The interior of the largest cell had a small stone-lined hearth and deposits of ash containing small mammal and fish bones occurred on the floor. A number of blue glass beads, stone spindle whorls and rubbing stones were found within the occupation deposits of the structure. Samples have been submitted for carbon dating and a sample of burnt material from the floor of the large cell yielded a calibrated date at 2 sigma confidence level of between AD 562 and 758(GrN21031).
A pollen core was taken of the peat in the interior of the structure. Despite their location within a prehistoric field system the cells are likely to have been of Early Christian date and represent an unusual though not unparalleled form of conjoined clocháin.
15 St Brigid's Rd. Upr., Drumcondra, Dublin 9
