2011:341 - SKELLIG MICHAEL, Kerry

Excavations took place in advance of conservation/reconstruction works by the Office of Public Works at the site of a partially collapsed lighthouse platform. The site is located on the south side of Skellig Michael, adjacent to the south steps and on the opposite side of the steps from the feature known as ‘The Wailing Woman’ and marked ‘yellow cross’ on the 1st-edition OS map.

The aims of the excavation and works were to make safe the platform or terrace and to establish the nature and significance of the archaeological remains. These aims were to be achieved in spite of restrictions due to the presence of protected nesting birds (puffins and storm petrels). The work proceeded sensitively and in consultation with staff from the OPW, BirdWatch Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

The work uncovered evidence for two walls of a previously unknown building. The walls were internally plastered, and roof slates and mortar for holding the slates onto the eaves were found. Fragments of window glass and occasional red brick fragments were found. This building was built against a rock face that had been quarried out to give some shelter from the severe weather. Evidence for occupation included fragments of stoneware jars and 19th-century cups and plates, glass bottles and animal bones, including pig, sheep, bird and fish bones. The structure may have been a store for building materials or a workshop associated with a working platform used during the construction of the south steps. Several new steps were also found leading from the exposed stone stairs down onto the terrace. Corroded iron nails and fragments of iron bars and other amorphous lumps of iron may be all that remains of the tools and implements used by the busy construction workers to quarry stone and shape it to make the stairways leading up to the earlier monastic site.

The dangerous nature of this site was clearly demonstrated by the discovery that one large boulder had fallen and partially crushed one of the side walls of the terrace.  No attempt had been made to remove the boulder from where it fell. It seems possible that the effect of the rockfall made the lighthouse men reconsider their use of this terrace, as the building was deliberately dismantled. Following demolition, some stone was removed for use elsewhere and a limited clearance took place. Two new side terrace walls were built, reusing some of the stone from the demolished building. A plastic dinner tray, glass bottle fragments and a halfpenny of George V dated 1936 were among the finds recovered from this phase of use of the terrace. The age of the tourist had clearly arrived.

The collapsed part of the front terrace wall was reconstructed, reusing the same stones that had subsided. When these works are finally completed (in 2012) it is intended that the terrace will provide a safe staging point for visitors to rest on their journey up the steps towards the monastery. It is hoped that the reinstatement of the terrace will improve the experience of visitors, especially those who are daunted by the full scale of the climb of 620 steps or more to the monastery.

Archive Unit, National Monuments Service, DAHG