EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kerry
House 9 was located at the southwest side of the excavated area and was truncated by a
small enclosure scarped into the hillside at its southern extent. Its internal dimensions were
approximately 4.6m by 5m, and a doorway was located in the eastern wall flanked by large
horizontally laid blocks. Its walls, which survived to a maximum of 1.1m thick and 0.7m high,
were built exclusively of horizontally-laid masonry. No laid floor survived and the interior was
heavily disturbed by later cultivation. A possible drainage channel defined by a gully (1m-
1.4m wide) was uncovered to the west of the house.
The much disturbed basal remains of a possible corn-drying kiln were excavated within the
large polygonal enclosure, approximately 15m to the north of the cluster of houses. It
consisted of a rectangular block of masonry containing a circular chamber (1m diameter) at
its west side and a rectangular stone-lined passage at the southern end. The kiln overlay one
of two excavated drains which would have kept the area of the possible drying chamber dry.
Charcoal from one of the drain produced a radiocarbon date of A.D. 934 ± 110. Charcoal
from the excavated kiln yielded a two sigma radiocarbon date of A.D. 710-740 or 770-1220.
Three cultivation furrows aligned north-south cut into the kiln. The excavated structure
compared closely in plan and dimensions with a better preserved kiln at the southern extent
of the western settlement
House 10 was 11 were revealed during excavations in 1999. They were poorly preserved
circular structures (Hayden 1999:324).
A circular house (IV) (3.5m in internal diameter) was excavated to the west of the cluster of
houses (1-9) on sloping ground close to an area of marshy ground. Like Houses 1 and 4, its
walls were constructed by two lines of vertically-set stones set in trenches which originally
retained a mass of sod and stone. A paved pathway led to the door of the house at its southeastern
side. To the north (uphill) and east side of the house were a number of unlined
drains which diverted water downslope around the building. A series of internal features and
occupation deposits were excavated. A stone-capped drain extended from a pit in the centre
of the house to its wall trench. Associated with the pit were a posthole and a number of small
stakeholes. Charcoal from the base of a stone-lined hearth in a later occupation deposit
produced a two sigma radiocarbon date of A.D. 676-984. From the house included two flat
stone discs, broken whetstone and a fragment of a carbonized wooden vessel.
The remains of another large, early medieval, stone circular house with a souterrain were
uncovered 100m west of the early medieval complex of houses. The circular house was
replaced by a sub-rectangular, bow-sided building. The walls of the latter consisted of
regularly spaced large posts. It was suggested that the shape and construction of this house
indicated a possible Scandinavian origin. The building was in turn overlain by the truncated
remains of a medieval, rectangular, stone-walled house (Hayden 2000:0423).
A medieval (i.e. eleventh/fifteenth century-) agricultural landscape of broad ridges and
furrows (up to 4.0m wide) was uncovered to the east of a possible medieval drainage
channel along the southern slopes (Fig. 150). The broad ridge and furrows were contained
within eleven fields defined by large earthen and stone banks and all had developed lynchets
varying from 1.3m to 2.0m at their lower ends. No medieval farmstead could be definitely
associated with the broad ridge and furrows.
Two stone and earthen field banks (Fig. 151) were recorded to the south and southeast of
the house cluster (1-11) and were built from a level under or within an old plough soil. The
south-eastern field boundary formed the fourth side of the polygonal enclosure (A)
surrounding the house cluster 1-9. Part of a quernstone and stone socket was recovered from
the southern bank. The fields delimited by these banks contained broad ridge and furrows
which cut through and overlay the early medieval houses and corn-drying kiln. Charcoal from
one of the furrows overlying the corn-drying kiln yielded a two sigma radiocarbon date of
A.D. 1292-1324 or A.D. 1332-1396. A series of other trenches were also excavated in various
other fields on the southern slopes.
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