House - early medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

Beginish Island lies between Valencia Island and the mainland at the N end of Valencia Harbour. Its E end comprises a narrow splayed projection terminating in a curving sand-bar at its SE tip, which, at certain low tides, is connected with the nearby Church Island (KE079-032001-). The highest point at this end of the island is known as Canroe, and a settlement complex located here extends from its western side over its summit and down to the rocky shoreline at E. The complex comprises eight houses, fifteen cairns, eight animal shelters and two poorly constructed structures, all of which lie within an extensive network of fields and walls. An iron smelting site (KE079-117----) occurs at its W end. The complex was investigated by O’Kelly in the early 1950s and two houses, a cairn and an animal shelter were fully excavated. The following description of the site is based on the report of these excavations (O’Kelly 1956, 159-94).

Houses: (2-5) These are O'Kelly's Houses 3 (KE079-031007-), 4 (KE079-031008-), 5 (KE079-031009-) and 8 (KE079-031010-), and were marked only by the remnants of their foundation courses, which were robbed in antiquity. Two are located close to the E shore, one occurs close to the summit of Canroe, and the fourth is on the lower W side of it.

The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1132. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 31 July 2013