House - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a terrace on the NE slope of a mound/sandhill (MA023-014003-) traditionally known as Bailey Mór. Conjoined on its W side to another house (MA023-014008-).
This drystone house (National Monument in state ownership no. 379) was excavated in 1938 by Françoise Henry (1945, 136-7: House B). Prior to excavation, it was already greatly ruined; only the W half remained, including part of the doorway in the NW wall. The full original plan of the house could not be determined. Henry summarised the situation as follows: ‘The exploration of House B was extremely difficult, because what remained of its walls was in a state of imminent collapse, and because the structure was so ruined and had been so much interfered with that it was not easy to discriminate between modern additions and old walls.’ (Ibid. 136).
Henry considered it likely that originally the house was of similar form and size to the subrectangular house (MA023-014008-) to which it is conjoined on the W side. The two houses form twin beehive structures sharing an intervening wall, but with no internal access between the two.
The remains of this house now consist of the W wall (int. L 2.8m N–S, H 1m) and short lengths of the N and S walls (L c. 2m E-W; H c. 0.5-0.7m). A later wall crosses the interior on a roughly N-S axis. It was built after the house had been abandoned to support a cross slab (MA023-014005-) decorated with a crucifixion scene. The construction of this wall appeared to have destroyed much of the original interior habitation layers, including the hearth, but Henry found scattered deposits of black soil with charcoal, bones and shell.
Artefacts recovered during the excavation included a pottery sherd, a fragment of an iron object with bronze on it, a bone point, and three silver pennies of late 12th century date, two minted in London, one in Canterbury (ibid. 137).
In addition to the crucifixion slab, three other cross slabs (MA023-014016-; MA023-014017-; MA023-014018-) were found at this house, although none was in its original position. One of these (MA023-014016-), incised with a cross with Y-shaped terminals to its shaft, was on the ground close to the entrance, and Henry postulated that it may originally have served as the door lintel (ibid. 137).
This is one of a cluster of houses on the Bailey Mór; there was a house (MA023-014004-) a few meters to SE, and another (MA023-014009-) a few meters to N.

Attached images:
MA023-014007-_01.JPG Remnants of house, with crucifixion cross (MA023-014005-) at E side, viewed from SW
MA023-014007-_01.JPG Remnants of house, viewed from NW

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 5 July 2023

References

Henry, F. 1945 Remains of the Early Christian Period on Inishkea North, Co. Mayo. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 75, 127-55.