House - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

Described by Herity (1995, 88, House 1) as follows: ‘This house is to the west of the oratory, its east wall forming part of the oratory enclosure. The ancient walls stand to about 90cm in height with a modem jumble of stones on top. The south end of the house appears to have been ruined and in part rebuilt, the north wall being the only one intact for its whole length. It is oriented 30 degrees south of west and is 1.87cm long on the inner face. The east wall meets it at an angle of 80 degrees, the west at an angle of 110 degrees; the plan is thus trapezoid or rhomboid. The east wall can be traced for a distance of 1.45m south from the north-east inner comer to the north side of the doorway, which appears to be 50cm wide at the base and sited opposite the west door of the oratory, while the west wall can be traced for a distance of 1.86m from the north-west inner comer. The original greatest north-south internal length of this house is estimated at 2.95m. Its width east-west was 1.87m, the estimated ratio of greatest length to breadth is 1.6:1. An ambry, 60cm deep, the ope measuring 25cm in height and 21cm in width, has been created in the inner face of the west wall of House 1. It is situated at a height of c.40cm on the wall and is 96cm from the north-west corner more or less opposite the entrance. In the north wall and the part of the west wall near the north-west corner the tradition of using very long regular blocks of stone in a 'coursed' style is clearly visible. As the walls rise vertically apparently without corbelling and as the ground plan is irregular, a coved roof sloping from south-west to north-east, possibly with the higher end incorporating the doorway at the facade, seems most likely.’

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 2 February 2014

Image DG089-018006-_01 (taken 21 July 1983): a view of the south-eastern part of the remains. The house is visible as a structure on the left of the image.

References

Herity, M. 1995 Two Island Hermitages in the Atlantic: Rathlin O'Birne, Donegal, and Caher Island, Mayo. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 125, 85-128.