House - early medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

On the SE-facing slopes of Bray Head on Valencia Island. This was excavated in 1998 (Mitchell et al. n.d.) revealing the collapsed remains of a roughly square house (5.1m N-S; 4.8m E-W) defined by drystone walls (T 0.7-0.8m) along the W and S sides and a small portion of the E side. The W end of the N wall was defined by a trench which was cut into the upslope. The drystone masonry comprised horizontally laid stones apart from one stone which was set upright along the S end of the W wall and a slot for another at the NE corner. The house was set in a shallow trench and scarped into the upslope to compensate for the hillslope. A primary hearth was situated in the SW corner of the house. Two groups of stake-holes occurred within the interior and some may have predated the house (ibid.). An unlined drain, roofed with capstones, led from the N portion of the interior towards a sump at the centre of the house. Two small unlined drains extended from the sump towards the SE corner where they joined together before exiting beneath the wall to the exterior of the house. Here the drain divided into three channels, some of which had retained the capstones. A second phase of use of this house saw the reflooring of the interior. A small pit cut through the floor in the NW portion of the interior and an unlined hearth (diam. 1.2m) partly overlay the pit. An unlined drain, on a N-S axis, occurred immediately outside the house to the W. The S side of the house was not excavated as it lay beneath the wall of a later house (KE087-025010-). This house was dated by radiocarbon dating to the 9th-11th century AD, probably making it the earliest rectangular house in the complex (Hayden 1999). The excavation of this and another house (KE087-025013-) showed that they belonged to Phase IV in a successive sequence of at least six phases of construction in this particular area of Bray Head. (Mitchell et al. n.d.; Hayden 1999).

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 30 May 2011