County: Kerry Site name: SKELLIG MICHAEL (Inner Enclosure), Great Skellig
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 104A001– Licence number: 93E0195
Author: Edward Bourke, Dúchas
Site type: Ecclesiastical site
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 424676m, N 560649m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.770662, -10.540524
Excavation work in 2001 concentrated on the East Steps to the monastery and on the area called the ‘Monk’s Graveyard’ within the inner enclosure.
The work on the East Steps entailed monitoring the removal of earth slippage and collapse which had partially buried the steps since they went out of use in the 1820s. Over 400 steps were uncovered and damaged steps were repaired. The work on the ‘Monk’s Graveyard’ was limited to the removal of 19th-century and later drystone revetment to the area which revealed the footings of two conjoined leachta. The northernmost leacht was revetted with stones on edge and the southern leacht had been revetted with drystone walling. No attempt was made to excavate the interior of the leachta.
Previous work on the island in 1999 had concentrated on the excavation of a leacht to the south of the Large Oratory and a series of three later burials which were found next to it, and on the completion of the conservation and reconstruction of the new southern entrance to the Inner Enclosure reported in Excavations 1998 (No. 276).
In 2000 conservation work on the south-east corner of the inner enclosure revealed a second early entrance to the interior of the monastery. The eastern retaining wall had collapsed twice in antiquity and this entrance had been built into the third phase of the wall. This entrance, with associated steps leading down through the wall, was similar to the entrance described in Excavations 1998. Excavation was limited by safety considerations and conservation work had to take place as the excavation was in progress. Further work on this area will take place in 2002.
Dún Scéine, Harcourt Lane, Dublin 2
