Hut site

The National Monuments Service's description

National Monument No. 10001. Illaunloughan/Oileán Lócháin (KE087-036017-) is a small, low-lying island located in Portmagee Channel, c. 120m from the mainland at S and c. 400m WNW of Portmagee (Port Mhic Aoidh) village. The island stands in the civil parish of Killemlagh (Cill Imleach), in the barony of Iveragh (Uíbh Ráthach). According to Marshall and Walsh (1998, 102) 'There is no historical documentation for the island, and the origin of its name is uncertain. Lochán may be the name of a saint associated with the island, a theory supported by the mention of two Lochans in the Martyrology of Oengus, written c. AD 800 (Stokes 1984, 255, 263) and by the inland location of Killoughane (Cill Lócháin) ecclesiastical site [KE065-058001-] at the eastern end of the Iveragh peninsula (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, 357). Alternatively the island name may be derived from the island of the chaff. Four seasons of archaeological work, carried out from 1992 to 1995, have completed the excavation of about 70 per cent of the island.
Hut site D described by O'Sullivan and Sheehan (1996, 307-8, no. 964) as follows; 'This hut is located near the SW end of the island, close to the end of a 2m high ridge, largely natural, that traverses its W end. The well-built, dry stone, corbelled hut measures 4.4m internally and features a 0.9m wide entrance at E. The walls are up to 1.8m thick and stand up to 1.8m high. Excavation revealed that the floor of the hut lay below external ground level.
The face of a midden deposit, which consists largely of shells, bones and charcoal, was exposed at the island's edge just SE of the hut. It was at least 3m long and was overlain for some of its length by a drystone wall, 0.8m high, which extended to W for c. 6m. Charcoal from the midden yielded an eleventh-century radiocarbon date (Marshall, Rourke and Berger, forthcoming). A range of artefacts, including fragments of an antler comb, bone beads and two bronze ring-brooches were discovered in the midden material during excavation. Evidence for a circular timber hut was revealed beneath the midden'.
According to the excavators (Marshall & Walsh 1998, 110), this hut referred to as Hut D post-dates the abandonment of a timber hut (KE087-036013-) and was constructed over the remains of huts (KE087-036014-/015-). C14 dating of animal bone incorporated in levelling dumps beneath its wall yielded a date of AD 775 to 961, calibrated to two standard deviations (UB 3860) (Marshall & Walsh 1998).

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 1/1998).

See attached plan taken from Marshall and Walsh 1998, Fig. 11.5

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.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 29 March 2022

References

Stokes, W. 1905 The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee. London.

O'Sullivan, A. and Sheehan, J. 1996 The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry. Cork University press.

Marshall, J. W. and Walsh, C. 1998 Illaunloughan, Co. Kerry: an island hermitage. In M. Monk and J. Sheehan (eds), Early medieval Munster: archaeology, history and society, 102-11. Cork University Press.

Marshall, J. W. and Walsh, C. 2005 Illaunloughan Island: an early medieval monastery in County Kerry. Bray. Wordwell.