2001:094 - SCATTERY ISLAND, Clare

Scattery Island (historically known as Inis Cathaigh) is a National Monument in state care. The island has been historically recorded in the annals and elsewhere from the early decades of the 6th century. The archaeology on Scattery is dominated by an extensive complex of medieval ecclesiastical structures, including a round tower, several churches, a holy well and the stump of a tower-house. Several other monuments dating from the later post-medieval period to the modern period also survive, including a vernacular fishing village that was occupied until the last decades of the 20th century. A monastery founded on the island around AD 534 by St Senan later became a very developed ecclesiastical complex. The island was the target of many Viking raids between 816 and 1176, during which time the Vikings settled on it. Given its strategic location at the mouth of the Shannon estuary, it effectively controlled all maritime traffic up the Shannon to Limerick and eventually on through the centre of Ireland.

An archaeological impact assessment was undertaken on behalf of Dúchas to establish a permanent dumping area for recently dredged marine spoil associated with an extension to the pier on the island. The assessment was undertaken along a stretch of the eastern coastal foreshore. Twenty archaeological features were recorded between the pier and Fawley’s Point. These included a possible trackway, two shell middens, two possible walls, a landing-place, a linear alignment of stone, three stone-lined drains, a possible clearance cairn, an extensive sea wall, a possible pit, an eroding cliff face containing human remains, four slipways, a vernacular cottage and an associated slipway.

Two test-trenches were opened to determine the nature and extent of one of the shell middens (F.2). It consisted primarily of oyster shells which overlay a layer of periwinkles. It was sealed by stone paving associated with an adjacent vernacular house. A post-medieval pottery fragment was recovered from the upper level. The second shell midden consisted of a thin lens of oyster, limpet and periwinkles and contained animal and human bone set in a dark humic fill.

The sea wall extended along the entire limits of the assessment zone. Its virtual disappearance as a retaining sea wall in front of Teampall na Marbh has no doubt contributed to the erosion of the human remains visible in the cliff section.

The slipways (F.5, F.13, F.19 and F.20) and associated landing-places reveal a period of time when individual houses had their own boat access. Cartographic evidence supports a mid-19th-century date that corresponds to a period of prosperity following salvage payments from the wreck of the Windsor Castle in 1831. Two discrete cuttings were inserted across F.5 to determine possible dating and to look for construction evidence.

Apart from the testing of the midden (F.2) and the slipway (F.5), all other features were mapped and fully recorded. On the basis of the results, a final dump area was selected and mitigation measures put in place for the satisfactory transport of the dredged material to the selected site. Further mitigation measures were also recommended for the eroding human remains from Teampall na Marbh and for the vernacular cottages.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry