House — early medieval in Beginish (iveragh By.)

Beginish Island lies between Valencia Island and the mainland at the N end of Valencia Harbour. Its E end comprises a narrow splayed projection terminating in a curving sand-bar at its SE tip, which, at certain low tides, is connected with the nearby Church Island (KE079-032001-). The highest point at this end of the island is known as Canroe, and a settlement complex located here extends from its western side over its summit and down to the rocky shoreline at E. The complex comprises eight houses, fifteen cairns, eight animal shelters and two poorly constructed structures, all of which lie within an extensive network of fields and walls. An iron smelting site (KE079-117----) occurs at its W end. The complex was investigated by O’Kelly in the early 1950s and two houses, a cairn and an animal shelter were fully excavated. The following description of the site is based on the report of these excavations (O’Kelly 1956, 159-94). Houses: (1) (KE079-031004-) This is O’Kelly’s House 2, and was fully excavated. Located 60m E of House 6, only the foundations of this circular structure, 6.5m in internal diameter, survived. Its wall may have been up to 2m in thickness, but almost all its facing stones were robbed. The .7m wide entrance at SE was marked by two upright jambstones. Excavation revealed the remains of an inner structure which appeared to have been built with the facing stones of House (1), and, therefore, postdates it. The wall of the inner structure was also subsequently robbed of its facing slabs. Its entrance, marked by a few larger slabs, was directly opposite that of House (2). No domestic refuse was recovered from this house, which was interpreted as an animal shelter or an enclosure. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1132. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 31 July 2013