Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

On a prominent hummock close to shore at SE end of island. On inspection in August 1984, this rectangular enclosure (13.8m E-W; 13.3m N-S) was defined by a ruinous double-faced drystone wall (Wth 0.75m; max. H 0.3m) with an entrance (Wth 0.7m), flanked by two uprights, at the mid-point along its S wall. The interior was uneven and sloped to the SSW. A flag-revetted stone wall (Wth 0.5m; H c. 0.25m) with a rubble core, running N-S roughly through its centre, may have marked an internal division. A small subcircular annexe (D c. 2.4m) adjoined it at SW where there were also traces of a collapsed stone bank running S to the cliff edge (SMR file). The enclosure has since been part of an on-going archaeological research project on the island, which is investigating whether this could be a burial ground with a clochan at its SW corner (Kuijt et al. 2010, 60-63, 66-9). (Gosling 1993, 174, no. 987)

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 30 March 2023

References

SMR file - Sites and monuments record files in the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Gosling, P. (compiler) 1993 Archaeological inventory of County Galway, vol. 1: West Galway. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Kuijt I., Lash R., Gibbons M., Higgins J., Goodale N. and O'Neill, J. 2010 Reconsidering early medieval seascapes: new insights from Inis Airc, Co. Galway,Ireland. Journal of Irish Archaeology XIX, 51-70.