EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kerry
Beginish, Co. Kerry
Early Medieval Nuclear Settlement
Grid Ref: V42587873 (042588/078739)
SMR No: KE079-031
Excavation Licence: E977
Excavation Duration/Year: Early 1950s
Site Director: M.J. O’Kelly (University College Cork)
Beginish is an island at the tip of the Iveragh Peninsula, connected to nearby by a sand bar at
its south-eastern corner. An early medieval settlement consisting of eight houses, fifteen
cairns, eight animal shelters and two poorly constructed structures lying within a network of
low stone field walls were identified at the eastern end of the island (Fig. 149). The site may
have originally been an unenclosed settlement, possibly associated with the monastery at
Church Island, which was re-used as a maritime way-station by a Hiberno-Scandinavian
community.
An excavation in the early 1950s investigated two houses, a cairn and an animal shelter
within this settlement. The excavator suggested two early medieval occupation phases,
although he admitted the possibility that the distinction between primary and secondary
phases may be inaccurate as not all of the structures could be stratigraphically related to
each other due to soil and sand erosion. Two distinct Hiberno-Scandinavian settlements (a
tenth century one; and an eleventh/early-twelfth century one) have been identified within
O’Kelly’s second phase recently.
O’Kelly’s primary occupation phase consisted of five circular buildings (Houses 2, 3, 4, 5 and
8), fifteen cairns, six animal shelters and all but four of the field walls. The five circular
houses appear to have been built directly on the turf surface of the original boulder clay and
were marked only by the remnants of their foundation courses.
Excavations at House 2 (6.5m in internal diameter) revealed a later structure within this
building, which in turn appears to have been cannibalised for field walls. No internal hearths
or habitation refuse was recovered within either structure. The primary field walls were
formed of upright stones, one stone in thickness and were poorly preserved, surviving to a
maximum height of 0.50m. They were all built directly on the original turf layer covering the
boulder clay or on outcropping rock surfaces.
The cairns were composed of small stones, resting on the original boulder clay. The
excavated cairn yielded no finds and measured 3.5m in diameter and survived to a height of
0.5m. The cairns of field-stones were interpreted as possible evidence for a tillage economy
in Phase I; a theory supported by the re-use of two quernstones in the walls of House 1 from
Phase II.
After an accumulation of sand, the primary settlement appears to have been abandoned for a
period of time before a Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement was built on the site. The earliest
Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement was represented by two roughly rectangular structures
(House 6 and House 7), dated to around the tenth century. Finds from near these buildings
included a probable tenth-century soapstone bowl, a type of tenth-century ringed pin
produced in Hiberno-Scandinavian Dublin, a hollow bone cylinder commonly found in
Hiberno-Scandinavian urban contexts, and a type of rotary whetstone found in the North
Atlantic Scandinavian region.
The second Hiberno-Scandinavian settlement was at House 1, 300m distant from Houses 6
and 7, and was dated to the eleventh/early-twelfth centuries. House 1 consisted of a sunkenfloored
dry-stone built circular house (11m externally) with central hearth with a smaller
rectangular adjunct (4.5m by 3m internally) with its own hearth (Fig. 149). It represented a
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