House - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

On a terrace at the NE edge of Bailey Mór mound (MA023-014003-).
Henry (1945, 140: House D) noted the outline of a ruined stone-built structure/house: ‘Its walls on the N side end abruptly over a retaining wall skirting the slope.’
She excavated the interior of the house in 1946. The results were not published, but details are recorded in the archive of her papers (Greene 2009, 158). It was a small, subrectangular structure (c. 2.9m E–W; 1.5m N–S), with walls of upright stones surviving to a height of c. 0.66m, with a possible entrance at the W end of the S wall and a possible ‘air inlet’ in the E wall. There were two superimposed floor layers, the lower containing bones and shells, the upper bones and charcoal. Iron clinker was found in association with a hearth (D 5-10cm) located against the E end of the S wall. On the N side of the hearth was an upright stone with a concave top, similar to one found in a house (MA023-014004-) located some meters to S.
Henry noted little to suggest that the house served a domestic function, and she considered that it may have been used as a forge (Green 2009, 158).
No remains of the house are now visible, although a number of low upright slabs extending in a gapped row to SW from the retaining wall of the terrace may mark its location. Two conjoined houses (MA023-014007-; MA023-014008-) lie immediately to S.
National Monument in state ownership (no. 379)

Attached image:
MA023-014009-_01.JPG: Probable location of house, viewed from E

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.