What is recorded here

Half a metre of cliff, no more, yet dense enough to mark a kitchen, a winter, a whole small life. Storms stripped the grass and soil back in 2014, revealing a thin white line of limpet and periwinkle shell with bone caught inside. Above it lay dirt, then turf, then nothing but sea air and the shadow of the tower house nearby. Someone stood where you stand, broke open what the cove gave, and dismissed the rest into a hole so ordinary the earth forgot it until the ocean remembered.

Located in an eroding cliff face, at the NW end of a small cove on the SE shore of Clare Island. This midden was exposed by storm action in 2014, and is visible in section as a thin layer (L 1m; T 0.1m) in the upper levels of the rocky cliff face. It consists predominately of limpet and periwinkle shells, but also includes animal and bird bone. Overlying the midden is a thin layer (T 0.2m ) of soil, which is overlain by a sod layer (T 0.1m). Fragments of slate were noted above the midden layer. There is a tower house (MA085-023001-) c. 15 m to N. The attached images of the midden viewed from the SE are uploaded courtesy of Deb Rotman: MA085-078----_01 MA085-078----_02 Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 5 February 2015

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