County: Clare Site name: Scattery Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL067–024 Licence number: 01E0662
Author: Dave Pollock, Knockrower Road, Stradbally, Co. Waterford.
Site type: Monastic, medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 497098m, N 652303m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.612222, -9.519444
The construction of new sewerage arrangements for visitor facilities on Scattery Island was monitored in 2008, and the pit for the new septic tank was cut as an archaeological excavation, on behalf of the OPW. Results and observations suggest the ground was reclaimed from a large lagoon in the later medieval period, by dumping midden and stone. A solid platform under the accumulation is probably part of a jetty, and linear marks in the intertidal silt are probably keel marks from boats. No building remains were found in the reclamation material, and linear irregularities are attributed to the continued beaching of boats on the rising midden and rough surfacing.
The lagoon had formed behind a shingle spit. Dirty clay with scorching on the shingle, found at the base of a drain cut, appears to be the floor of a building pre-dating the standing 19th-century cottage.
