1995:131 - Beaufort, Kerry

Following an initial inspection of the site, the Office of Public Works requested that, prior to the re-sealing of the souterrain, infill be removed from Chamber 2, the more northerly of the two chambers, and that the exact nature of the northern end of this chamber be ascertained. The work was carried out on 7 October.

The infill was composed of a dark brown topsoil which was quite compact in the 1.42m-long unroofed area at the northern end of the site, but was much more loose where it had slipped into the roofed section of the chamber. The maximum depth of this infill was 0.51m.

This material was removed and contained no finds. There was a steep rise in the floor level of the passage towards its northern end. This was very visible in section, where there was a steep rise in the level of the cream-coloured boulder clay which underlay the infill and on which the basal stones of the side walls rested.

When the infill had been removed from the chamber it could clearly be seen that the side walls decreased in height from a point 2.6m from the creep entrance to the end of the passage, a distance of 2.1m. At the northern end of the passage the base of the side walls had risen to such an extent that the walls were only 0.21m high.

It also became clear that this was not a single chamber but a smaller chamber, 3.22m in length, and a narrow entrance passage, 1.48m long and, on average, 1m wide at floor level. This entrance passage conforms to the unroofed section of the site.

There was no evidence that any lintels had been removed from this area of Chamber 2. The lintels of the chamber are set on a lower wall level than that in the unroofed section. The top extant lintels are on the same level as the remaining height of walling in the unroofed section. This would seem to indicate that the entrance passage was never roofed by stone lintels. There was no evidence of a back wall to this passage; however, if one existed it would, given the level of the sterile boulder clay at this point, have been as insubstantial as the northern ends of the side walls. There was a small number of loose stones found within the infill of the passage and these may be evidence of a low back wall. Given the height of a possible back wall and the decreased height of the side walls, it is unlikely that the passage could have borne the weight of stone lintels. It is possible that this area of the site was roofed or sealed using wood.

This unroofed passage would also seem to be the most likely point of entry to the souterrain complex. If this were the case there may have been a trapdoor entrance utilising the downward-sloping floor as an easy access to the chambers below. Such a drophole entrance to a narrow passage may have served a restrictive and defensive purpose similar to the creep.

No excavation was undertaken in Chamber 1, which was clear of infill. However, replacement of the two lintels removed from Chamber 1 was not possible as it was not felt that the walls would support the load. The landowner undertook to strengthen the tops of the walls prior to the replacing of the lintels. Following consultation with the Office of Public Works, the landowner was advised to backfill the unroofed northern end of Chamber 2.

There only find from the site was found inserted between two stones of the side wall at the unroofed northern end of Chamber 2. The object is made of iron and is very badly corroded. It consists of a long straight shank or tang which is 120mm long, 10mm in max. width, 60mm in minimum width and 60mm thick. The tang is widest where it meets the curved blade of the object. This blade is 130mm in minimum width (near the tang) and 19mm in max. width (at the top of the blade). The thickness of the outside edge of the blade varies from 2mm to 3mm, with a noticeable decrease in width toward the inner edge. The max. overall length of the blade is 140mm and the max. overall length of the object is 260mm. There is evidence of a break at the tip of the blade but it is impossible to say how much is missing. There is also some minor chipping at the base of the tang. The object would appear to be a small iron sickle of early medieval date.

There is a full discussion of the excavation of the souterrain, its situation, as well as the dating, context and place of the sickle in the corpus of early medieval sickles, published in the Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society 25 (1992), 20-38.

Ashe Memorial Hall, Denny St., Tralee, Co. Kerry