Terrace

The National Monuments Service's description

This is known as the Lower Monks' Garden. Prior to excavation it consisted of two abutting terraces separated by a 19th century wall. The NE terrace is noted in O'Sullivan and Sheehan as a separate 'small poorly preserved terrace' (1996, 286 (20)). Excavation and conservation work in this area have demonstrated that this NE terrace was not separate but originally formed part of the Lower Monks' Garden. They revealed traces of a short NE-SW stretch of stepping stones, as well as the remains of a clochán (KE104A001066-), an enclosure (KE104A001029-) and a smaller terrace (KE104A001110-) with a platform (KE104A001020-) on top (pers. comm. G. Rourke, E. Bourke; Bourke 1994, 45; 1995, 44-5).
Excavations in 1994 on this terrace were summarised as follows; 'Excavation in advance of conservation works took place over a fourteen week period between May and August 1994. The work concentrated on the Lower Monks' Garden. A large area at the eastern end of the garden was opened to facilitate conservation and reconstruction of the outer wall of the terrace. Excavation revealed that there was up to 4.5m of 19th-century collapse over this end of the garden. Much of this debris dates to the collapse of part of Saint Michael's church [KE104A001042-] and the inner wall of the garden. The weight of this debris seems to have resulted in the collapse of the eastern end of the outer wall of the garden and some loss of the stratigraphy against the inner edge of the outer wall.
At the base of the cutting a large clochán [KE104A001066-] and an area of stone paving was uncovered. This clochán was occupied by the lighthouse builders in the 1820s and was destroyed by the collapse. There were traces of an earlier building in the section face at the outer edge of the garden but this could not be investigated as it underlay the paving associated with the clochán' (Bourke 1995, 44-5)

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

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 11 March 2022

References

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

Bourke, E. 1994 'Monks' Garden', Skellig Michael - Great Skellig; Monastic site. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1993: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 45.

Cotter, C. 1992 Sceilig Michael; Early Christian monastery. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1991: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 25, No. 71.

Bourke, E. 1995 Skellig Michael ('Monks' Garden'), Great Skellig: Monastic site. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1994: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 44-5.

Bourke, E. 1998 Skellig Michael ('Monks' Garden'), Great Skellig: Monastic site. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1997: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 86, No. 244. Bray, Wicklow.