1998:259 - MAINISTIR CHIARÁIN, Oghil, (Inis Mór), Galway

A third season of excavation was carried out at Mainistir Chiaráin, Inis Mór, Co. Galway, over seven weeks between late June and mid-August 1998. Previous summaries can be found in Excavations 1996 (44–5) and Excavations 1997 (77).

Owing to the partial collapse of the north-east corner of Building A at the start of the 1998 season, it was necessary to step back from its walls, thus reducing the area excavated. Adjacent to the church wall excavation was restricted to two 1m-wide trenches parallel to the church on either side of Wall 028. Inside Building B the area excavated was also reduced in the northern half of the cutting, in order to step back from the walls. A second cutting, 6m x 6m in extent, was opened to the east of Cutting 1, 3m south of the church.

Inside Cutting 1 a cobbled surface was identified underlying Wall 028, the west wall of Building B. Incorporated within this cobbled area was a narrow, well-constructed drain of small dolomite slabs, running east-west. The cobbled area was delimited to the south and west by a wide, L-shaped drain, which was constructed of limestone slabs and covered at its north-western end by a large, broken capstone. The upper fill of this feature contained burned organic material and produced a number of finds, including some bone points, a bone pin with a bronze ring, fragments of worked jet and a bronze pin with a silvered shaft and terminal loop. The context directly overlying the fill of the drain also produced a decorated bronze pin with double scroll terminals and a fragment of a jet bracelet. Three radiocarbon dates of 1190±60 BP, 1250±60 BP and 1280±50 BP were recorded for the fill of this feature, the surface overlying it and on either side of it. The function of the feature remains unclear at present.

Excavation was not completed in the interior of Cutting 1; the drain and surrounding surfaces remain to be excavated in 1999. Adjacent to the church layers rich in charcoal and organic material were identified underlying the cut for the church wall.

In Cutting 2 a shell-rich soil underlay the topsoil. Cultivation furrows were evident above the shell midden. A rich garden soil of considerable depth underlay the spread of shell. The cultivation in this area of the site has led to extensive disturbance of archaeological strata. The east wall of Building B appears to have been completely robbed, but the line of the wall was suggested by a number of stone-holes running north-south along the west baulk and by a spread of occupation material. The bases of a number of gullies and possible stake-holes were cut into clay underlying the garden soil.

The construction level of the church was identified lying directly on the clay subsoil. Evidence of activities related to construction included a large pit, possibly dug to extract clay and backfilled with stoneworking debris, a lime-pit and a spread of partially worked and unworked limestone blocks.

This excavation is funded by the Heritage Services, Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, on the recommendation of the National Committee for Archaeology of the Royal Irish Academy, and by the University Research Expeditions Program, Berkeley.

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