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Midden in Inis Oírr

Midden

What is recorded here

Inis Oírr still holds a long strip of broken limpet shells and split bones beside St Caomháin's church. People lived there, ate what the sea gave them, and left their refusal behind. The dunes changed, but the red slope outside the graveyard gate keeps repeating the shape of that abandoned kitchen.
In the sand-dunes around St Caomháin's church (GA120-007001-). Mason (1938, 198) noted the existence of a large 'kitchen midden' (L c. 137m, Wth c. 46m) in this area, composed of limpet shells, 'split bones and pieces of charcoal'. Extensive surface traces of this are still visible, particularly on the N-facing slope outside the graveyard gate. (Robinson 1980) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

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What survives
Recorded monument

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