2001:549 - BRAY HEAD (Valentia Island), Kerry

A final, four-week season of excavation, largely funded by Dúchas, was undertaken on the site in August and September 2001. Reports on previous seasons’ work on the site have been published in Excavations from 1993 onwards. Two sites were excavated this year.

Houses IV and VII in the Crompeol house group were the first excavated this year at Site 1. House IV proved to be a rectangular two-roomed, stone-walled house which measured 11.6m in length, with entrances to both rooms in its east wall. The building contained no formal flooring but extensive spreads of ash, post-holes and hearths attest to its occupation. No datable finds were uncovered from its excavation. The building is likely to be of medieval date and it is hoped that radiocarbon dating will elucidate its exact date.

House VII lay immediately upslope of the former house. It was a very poorly preserved rectangular stone building. No floor levels survived within it. It is likely to be of late medieval date but no datable finds were recovered from it.

House I was excavated at Site 2. This fine rectangular house was erected against the high lynchette at the downhill end of one of the larger medieval fields of the farm. It is associated with a number of small fields, which are subdivisions of older and larger fields. House I, which was clearly visible before excavation, measured 4.6m by 7.6m. It was clearly of two phases; its original drystone and sod walls were replaced by totally drystone walls and its interior was refloored in the later 17th century. Several hearths, drains and post-holes were uncovered in its interior, as were extensive deposits of ash.

The house was built inside a small enclosure defined by a narrow ditch and a bank. Sections were opened across these features. Two raised cultivation beds, delimited by stone walls, were also uncovered south of the house within the enclosure.

25A Eaton Square, Terenure, Dublin 6W