Terrace

The National Monuments Service's description

On the steep SW-facing slopes of the South Peak c. 20m SW of the oratory terrace (KE104A001011-). 'This kidney-shaped area is located on a strongly sloping ledge and measures 13m NW-SE, varying from 2m to 4m in width. Its retaining drystone wall is preserved to a maximum height of 1.5m at its higher, NW, end; at the opposite end collapse has reduced the wall height to .3m. The terrace fill comprises quantities of stone chippings and some sandstone cobbles in a matrix of soil' (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, 287-8, no. 948 (25))
The Garden Terrace described in 1990 as follows; 'The kidney-shaped terrace is thirteen meters long and varies in width from two to four meters. The long axis of the terrace runs roughly from northwest to southeast. The retaining wall, 1.5 meters high at the northwestern end of the platform, is built on firm bedrock. This section of the wall is in impeccable condition, as solid as when first constructed. It is identical in style with the best dry-stone masonry found in the monastery itself. Toward the southeastern end of the platform the height of the retaining wall decreases in places to as little as 0.3 meter. Here the courses are no longer horizontal but jumbled, an effect characteristic of subsidence, doubtless caused by their construction on the section of the ledge that tilts briskly southeastward. At present there is a drop of 2.4 meters between the northwestern and the southeastern ends of the terrace; estimates based on this drop suggest that at least 40 percent of the original terrace fill is no longer there. The southeastern section of the wall, now only 0.3 meter high, would have needed to be approximately 3 meters high to create a level terrace. The original terrace wall was probably never more than a meter above the present level of the northwestern section, as the walls are too thin and roughly constructed on the inner face to have supported a greater height'(Horn et. al. 1990, 33-6).

See attached figures 25, 26, 27 and 28 taken from Horn, W., White Marshall, J. and Rourke, G. 1990 The forgotten hermitage of Skellig Michael.

Compiled by: Elizabeth Byrne, Ursula Egan and Sheila Ronan, Archaeological Survey Unit, University College, Cork.

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 2 March 2022

References

Horn, W., White Marshall, J. and Rourke, G. 1990 The forgotten hermitage of Skellig Michael. Berkley. University of California Press.

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