1997:231 - BRAY HEAD (Valentia Island), Kerry

This was the fifth season of excavation undertaken on Bray Head in conjunction with Professor G.F. Mitchell (Excavations 1993, 41, 93E0121; Excavations 1994, 43, 94E0119; Excavations 1995, 40, 95E0116; and Excavations 1997, No. 230).

Two adjacent areas were excavated in the location identified by Professor Mitchell as the 'farmyard' of the early medieval farm. The larger area excavated revealed the following sequence of structures.

Level 1: A stone-revetted terrace and associated postholes and pits, and part of a small, round, stone-revetted, clay-walled house.

Level 2: A large round house with stone-revetted clay walls with drains leading downslope from it. Only part of the interior was excavated but part of its hearth was uncovered.

Level 3: The very poorly preserved remains of another small round house.

Level 4: A large, rectangular, drystone-walled house, previously dated by 14C determination to the later 9th to early 11th century.

Level 5: Earthen field fences and cultivation furrows which appear to date to the 14th century or earlier.

The smaller area excavated revealed part of another rectangular stone-walled house. Samples of seeds and charcoal were taken and have been examined. While the results of 14C dating of the round houses are awaited, they are likely to date from the 6th or 7th century AD as they are similar to others excavated in the area.

The excavated areas appear to be the site of the house or houses of an unenclosed farming settlement dating from at least the 6th century until probably the 12th or 13th century, when the area was enclosed in fields which have large lynchettes at their lower ends. Other houses, probably of similarly early date, lie scattered about the hillside beneath the medieval fields. In the later medieval period a street of houses was built on top of the medieval fields and continued to be occupied until the 16th or 17th century.

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