County: Kerry Site name: CAHERLEHILLAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE070-043 Licence number: 93E0073 ext.
Author: ohn Sheehan, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure and Hut site
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 457214m, N 583585m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.985941, -10.078897
Excavations at this early ecclesiastic enclosure continued in 2003 as part of the undergraduate training programme in the Department of Archaeology, University College Cork. The 2003 season was concentrated in the north-east and southeast quadrants of the enclosure and produced further information on the early medieval occupation of the site. This included evidence of a number of early medieval graves and an entrance feature located in the eastern section of the enclosure wall.
The excavation of the area around the shrine structure in the north-east quadrant of the site continued, and a number of adult graves of both dug and stone-lined and lintelled-type were revealed beneath the shrine. The trench in the entrance area measured 5m east–west by 4m and was opened to examine two large upright slabs visible in the enclosure wall. A line of seven ceallúnach graves was uncovered inside the entrance area. These graves cut through a layer of collapsed stones from the enclosure wall as well as the stone deposit that filled the area between the two upright stones. The excavation of the ceallúnach burial ground in the area to the north of the shrine also continued, and a number of the graves were excavated. There were very few surviving skeletal remains in these graves, while none survived in the early medieval graves.
Two test-trenches, measuring 4m north–south by 2m, were opened across a field bank located to the north of a 19th-century roadway which truncates the early medieval enclosure here. The trenches were opened to establish if this bank marked the northern line of the enclosure wall. This area had been disturbed by a line of trees, but clear traces of the enclosure wall did survive. A third trench was opened in the field to the south-west of the enclosure to establish if a ditch, earlier than the enclosing wall, extended into this area. There was no evidence for this feature uncovered.
The excavations at Caherlehillan will continue in 2004 and will be concentrated in the ceallúnach and early medieval burial ground in the eastern half of the enclosure.
