Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Enclosure
Inishcaltra Or Holy Island, County Clare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Inishcaltra Or Holy Island
- County
- Clare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 52.91588, -8.44795
- SMR number
- CL029-009133-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Situated c. 12m N of the Saint’s Graveyard (CL029-009030-) on Inis Cealtra. An almost circular fenced enclosure (diam. c. 23m) with evidence of bronze-working was excavated in the 1970s and dated to the 11th century AD (de Paor 2013, 39, 57). Stone ‘motif pieces’ were found as well as bronze waste and scraps of bronze with ornament in the ‘Irish Ringerike’ style. A ‘stain’ of a possible rectangular structure was found in the interior and there were traces of one or more extremely light huts or bothies, in one case with a hearth in the centre. The enclosure overlay earlier burials associated with a graveyard or enclosure (CL029-009135-) around a wooden shrine (CL029-009134-). A pit within the enclosure yielded radiocarbon dates of Cal AD 775-962 (UBA-27539) (Seaver and O'Sullivan 2015, 12-13, 33).
Revised by: Mary Tunney
Date of revision: 19 July 2016
References
de Paor †, L. 2013 Inis Cealtra: Archaeological investigations of the monuments on the island. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 53, 27-78.
Seaver, M. and O'Sullivan, A. 2015 Report on the Iniscealtra post excavation project for the Royal Irish Academy 2015. Excavation no. E180. Early Medieval Archaeology Project, School of Archaeology, University College Dublin.
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.