Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on an eroding cliff face on the SE shoreline of Inishmurray Island, this small enclosure is conjoined to the E side of a larger enclosure (SL001-004001-), and is part of complex of monuments named ‘Relickoran’ on the 1837 and 1912 OS 6-inch maps. It encloses a leacht (SL001-004006-). It is a National Monument (no. 117) in state ownership.
As it was subject to severe marine erosion, the enclosure was fully excavated (99E0381) over two seasons in 1999 and 2000; the results are described in detail in O’Sullivan and Ó Carragáin (2008, 251-298). Following the excavation, the enclosure and its leacht were reconstructed by the OPW using the original rubble masonry, but set back at a safer distance from the eroding cliff edge.
Prior to excavation, this rectangular enclosure (4m E−W; 3m N−S) was defined at N and E by collapsed drystone walls, evident as banks of stone rubble (Wth c. 2.5). At W it shared the E wall of the larger enclosure (SL001-004001-), and a simple stile in this wall allowed access between the two enclosures. The sea had destroyed the enclosing wall on the S side at the cliff edge.
The excavation revealed that the two enclosures, and their respective leachts, were built sometime between the early 8th century and the 12th century. They were built on a pre-existing burial ground (SL001-004003-), and burials continued in the larger enclosure (SL001-004001-) until the early post-medieval period.
The leacht (SL001-004006-) in this, the smaller enclosure overlay two graves. A bone sample from a male skeleton in one of the graves, produced a radiocarbon date to the period between late 9th-century to mid- 12th century, and skull fragments, found scattered among stones at the base of the leacht, were dated to the period between early 11th-century to early 13th century.
After burials ceased, the enclosures and leachts remained the focus for devotional activity, and there is evidence that the enclosure walls and the leachts were repaired or partly rebuilt on several occasion during the modern period. (O’Sullivan and Ó Carragáin 2008, 251-298).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 8 March 2018

References

O'Sullivan J. and Ó Carragáin T. 2008 Inishmurray: Monks and Pilgrims in an Atlantic Landscape. Volume 1: Archaeological Survey and Excavations 1997-2000. The Collins Press. Cork.