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.
On the S shore of Illaunloughan. Hut site C described by O'Sullivan and Sheehan (1996, 307-8, no. 964) as a circular timber hut site, revealed beneath a midden (KE087-036007-). This was subsequently excavated (Marshall and Walsh 2005, 145) to reveal the partial remains of a circular wooden hut site (diam. c. 4.8m). The S half of the hut site had been eroded. The remains were defined by a semicircular trench NW-NE. Small, thin slate stones were placed on edge along the inner edge of the trench and a number of white quartz stones had been laid along the surface of the trench. A rough arrangement of sandstone blocks outside the arc of the trench may have supported the base of an insulating wall of sods or turfs. A single post-hole at the E may have held a door jamb at the entrance to the hut site (ibid.). A small portion of the floor area in the W part of the hut site was covered with horizontal slates which, according to the excavators (ibid.) may be the remnants of partial reflooring. A metal-working site (KE087-036020-) is associated with this hut site. In addition, a bone motif-piece, carrying panels of interlace and triquetra knots and bands of diagonally hatched motifs, were also recovered. According to the excavators (ibid.), the remains of the hut site suggest that it took the form of a structure constructed of small posts and wattle which decayed in situ. This hut site was conserved in 2001-2 (ibid., 216-17). (Marshall and Walsh 1998; 2005 19-22)

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: 30 March 2022

References

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

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

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.

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