EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Sligo
Inishmurray, Co. Sligo
Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Settlements.
Grid Reference: G57355415 (157356/354152)
SMR No: SL001-007006
Excavation Licence: 97E0256; 99E0381; 00E0484
Excavation Duration/Year: 1997-2000.
Site Director: J. O’Sullivan & T. Ó Carragáin (University College Cork)
The island of Inishmurray, located in Ballysadare Bay between counties Sligo and Donegal,
was subject to a series of archaeological surveys and excavations between 1997 and 2000.
These focused primarily on the number of monastic/ecclesiastical sites on the island, and
their utilisation as a focus for medieval pilgrimages. Excavations at the leachta (dry-stone
built altars) at Relickoran (99E0381) and Ollamurray (00E0484), for example, uncovered
human burials, a number of which were radiocarbon dated (see below). These dates suggest
that the leachta were constructed later than the earliest phase of Christian burials on the
island, and that this early phase coincides well with the first appearance of the site of
Inishmurray in AU 751.
The excavation at the leacht at Trahanareear (97E0256) uncovered an earlier dry-stone built
monastic cell partially preserved beneath the later altar (Fig. 260). From the remains it was
possible to estimate an internal diameter of 1.8m, and, the relative narrowness of the walls
led the excavators to suggest that this building may have been roofed with turf or thatch,
rather than being a corbelled ‘beehive’ hut. This interpretation appears to be supported by
the discovery of a central posthole in a paved-area of this cell which had survived beneath
the leacht. The most intriguing find from this structure was two sherds of a green glass vial
found in the wall cavity. These have been identified as either belonging to a seventeenth or
eighteenth apothecary’s perfume flask; or alternatively as representing the remains of an
Imperial Roman ‘lacrymar’ – which would have been used to catch the tears of mourners at a
funeral. It has also been argued to be of Byzantine or even Frankish manufacture.
Subsequent testing was unable to definitively verify the age of this glass vessel, and thus it
remains an enigma.
Fig. 260: Early phase of leacht at Trahanareear, Inishmuray, Co. Sligo showing cell (after
O’Sullivan & Ó Carragáin 2008, 224).
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