Clochan

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 177. Dunbeg/An Dún Beag:

A stone flagged pathway leads from the entrance in the rampart to a clochaun in the interior of the fort. It partly overlies a stone-lined drain which runs along the outside of the clochaun to the cliff edge.

The clochaun, circular in plan outside and rectangular inside, has an internal diameter of 7.5m and is a maximum of 2.3m high. The lintelled doorway faces NW, and, at about mid-point on both sides, stone supports for a door occur and 2 draw-bar holes are also preserved. The earliest plans and descriptions of the site indicate a more complex structure here, consisting either of 2 conjoined clochauns or of a single clochaun with internal divisions (Du Noyer 1858, 3; Dunraven 1875, 21; Pitt-Rivers c. 1865). However, Deane's 1893 plan shows the structure as it is today. Perhaps these subdivisions were merely late sheep-shelters constructed within the remains of the clochaun, and, if so, they may have been removed prior to 1893 during restoration work by the OPW.
Two major phases of occupation were recorded during the excavation of the clochaun. The 1st phase was centered on a small hearth close to its S wall. Clusters of stake holes to N and S probably indicate the presence of tripods for supporting pots or skins over the fire. Analysis of the meagre occupation debris suggests a diet mainly of pigs, sheep and goats with some cattle. The 2nd occupation layer lay .18 to .3m above the 1st and was concentrated on 2 hearths in the centre of the clochaun. The bones of sheep, pig, deer, birds and fish were recovered. Several post-holes and numerous stake holes were also recorded. Although the walls corbel inwards, Barry considered the span too great to have supported a corbelled roof and suggests that the structure may never have been roofed. Instead lean-to shelters may have been erected in the NW, SE and SW corners with 2 of the sides supported by the clochaun walls and the other sides by wooden posts. Some of the stake holes can be lined up to indicate the existence of the wattle walls of such shelters. Neither period of occupation appears to have been of any great duration and the clochaun may have been occupied in periods of emergency only.

Dates of 900 ± 65 a.d. and 990 ± 100 a.d., from the occupation layers in the clochaun, suggest it was inhabited in the 10th or 11th centuries ad.

The above description is derived from J. Cuppage, ‘Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne’ (1986), no. 272. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 4 August 2013

References

Cuppage, J. 1986 Corca Dhuibhne. Dingle Peninsula archaeological survey. Ballyferriter. Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne.

Dunraven, E. the Earl of 1875 Notes on Irish Architecture, 2 vols. London. George Bell and Sons.

Du Noyer, G.V. 1858 On the Remains of Ancient Stone-built Fortresses and Habitations occurring to the West of Dingle, County Kerry. The
Archaeological Journal 15, 1-24.