House - Viking/Hiberno-Norse

The National Monuments Service's description

On the SE-facing slopes of Bray Head on Valencia Island. This building was excavated in 2000 (Hayden 2000b) revealing the remains of a bow-sided, subrectangular house (6-6.5m x 3-4m) of timber construction. The N wall was constructed in a trench which was scarped into the hillslope. Four post-holes (diam. c. 0.2m) occurred along the N wall and two corner posts survived in the S wall. Excluding corner posts, there were five post-holes in the W wall and four in the E wall. A number of stake-holes and a narrow linear slot just inside the W wall may have been the remnants of some form of insulation. There was a large hearth (D 0.1m) at the centre of the floor. A number of small stake-holes in and around the hearth may be the remains of a series of supports for cooking spits. A large, flat, fire-cracked stone at the N side of the hearth was probably used as a baking stone. The house was divided internally but only a single line of stake-holes survived from this partition. A series of small, stone-capped drains led from the N wall out through the S wall and also to a sump in the E part of the house. The doorway entrance may have been located in the centre of the E wall where a bifurcated drain occurred. A layer of water-deposited silt overlying the remains of this house indicated that there may have been a considerable gap in time between its abandonment and the building of a stone-built house (KE087-080006-) on the site. This latter house was built to the N of, and partly over, the N wall of another earlier house (KE087-080008-). According to the excavator (ibid., 7), this bow-shaped house seems to have its closest parallels with Viking houses in places such as Scotland and the Isle of Man. (Hayden 2000b)

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