What is recorded here

Mannin More holds a long forgotten neighbourhood where stone walls and hut foundations still mark the south shore of Mannin Bay. People lived there through generations, eating shellfish, burning wood and dumping the remains in heaps that reached knee height before the sand swallowed them. The dunes move without warning, dragging whole rooms into seas of gold and burying the evidence of laughter, argument and ordinary days. What remains is not a ruin but a breath held underwater, waiting for the wind to pause long enough for someone to remember the shape of the lives lost inside it.

In the extensive sand-dunes along S side of Mannin Bay. A series of middens and habitation sites similar to, if not associated with, the midden complex to SW in Doonloughan (GA048-008001-). To NW of Ship Harbour is a large area of settlement (L 250m, Wth 150m) consisting of a series of stone walls, huts (GA049-024001-) and large quantities of midden material, all of which is rapidly being eroded by wind action. The midden material consists mainly of periwinkle, limpet and whelk, burnt stone, hearths and charcoal. Some 600m to W, and extending further W for c. 1.5km, are similar concentrations of shells, huts and stone walls, all ranged along the coastline. (Brunicardi 1914, 198) 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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