2003:447 - NENDRUM, Mahee Island, Down

Monitoring during the replacement of a safety grill covering a previously excavated and exposed pit on the early monastic site at Nendrum took place on 27 June 2003. The exposed pit is located immediately adjacent to the second cashel wall on the western side of the site. It is partially overlain by the southern wall of the ‘monastic school’ building. Apparently stratigraphically pre-dating the monastic school, the pit is c. 0.95m by c. 0.8m and c. 1.9m deep. Its sides are revetted by stones and Lawlor suggested that it may have been partially arched over the top (Lawlor 1925, 104). Although it was excavated by both Lawlor, who recorded that its base contained ‘a deep layer of fire remains, and a few fragments of animal bones’ (1925, 104), and Thomas (see Matthews 1995, 66, fig. 28.4), the date and function of the pit remains uncertain.

During the fitting of the new safety grill, the only disturbance to the site was five small, irregular-shaped holes that were dug adjacent to the pit and which formed sockets into which the bolts of the grill’s frame were concreted. The stratigraphic sequence in each trench was similar but not identical. All five holes were covered in a thick layer of matted vegetation which overlay a deposit of loose rounded to subangular stones. In three of the holes this deposit was only one stone thick, whilst in the other two it was at least two layers of stone deep. For the purposes of securing the bolts of the grill it was only necessary to remove one layer of stones in all five of the holes. Where fully excavated, the stone layers varied in thickness from 0.08 to 0.11m. A sherd of modern bottle glass and two small concrete blocks were recovered from the stony deposit, suggesting that it is of relatively recent date. A silty loam, which underlay the deposit of loose stones, was visible in the three holes where the stone deposit was only a single layer thick.

Despite their small size, a tentative interpretation of the stratigraphic sequence exposed in the five holes is possible. The layer of stones represents a recent and deliberate deposit, presumably intended to form either a path or an area of hard-standing around the pit. That the deposit varies in depth suggests that its deposition may have been part of an attempt to level the ground surface around the exposed pit. The overlying matted vegetation is the product of grass and weeds which have grown up through the stones, while the underlying mid-brown silty loam may represent a buried topsoil or, more probably, the backfill of either Lawlor’s or Thomas’s excavations.

References
Lawlor, H.C. 1925 The monastery of Saint Mochaoi of Nendrum. Belfast.
Matthews, G. 1995 Nendrum rediscovered. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast.

School of Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast BT7 1NN