What is recorded here

Three earthen banks still guard the narrow neck where Sherkin Island thrusts into the sea, proving that this was no casual pasture but a placed stronghold. The outer and middle banks rise across the approach, broken by ditches wide enough to swallow a charging horse or panic-struck person. The sea now gnaws their ends, taking back what human hands added to the rock.

On a roughly triangular headland (c. 120m E-W) that projects into the sea on the W side of Sherkin Island. The neck (28m N-S) of the headland is defended by three earthen banks. The outer bank (Wth 1.7m; ext. H 0.35m; int. H 0.7m) is separated from the middle bank (Wth 1.6m; ext. H 0.35m; int. H 0.55m) by a fosse (Wth 4m). The remains of a shorter inner bank (L 4m; Wth 1.8m; int. H 0.3m; ext. H 0.5m) at the N end of the neck are separated from the middle bank by another fosse (Wth 1m). The ends of the middle and inner banks are being eroded by the sea. The W half of the interior is rocky and the E half is in rough pasture. Traces of lazy-beds, orientated N-S, are visible on the landward side immediately to the E. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009

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