House — early medieval in Bray

On the SE-facing slopes of Bray Head on Valencia Island. The surviving portions of this house were excavated in 1997-8 (Hayden 1999), though the SE quadrant had been largely removed by a later house (KE087-025012-). The remains of this rectangular house (5.8m N-S; 5.2m E-W) were defined by a slab-lined, sod-core wall along the N end of the W side and along the N side. The N end of the E wall comprised of a drystone wall (T c. 1.1m; H 0.25m). The upper sections of the slab-lined walls appeared to have consisted of horizontally laid drystone masonry. The internal NW corner was right angled whereas the NE, SW and probably the SE corners were rounded. The house was scarped (D 0.6m) into the upslope to compensate for the hillslope. There was a doorway in the E wall, the N side of which was extant. A group of seventeen stake-holes occurred within the house, to the E of centre. Although they formed no recognisable pattern, they may have represented the placement or replacement of some particular internal fitting. There was a possible hearth at the centre of the floor where oxidised subsoil beneath some burnt material was discovered. Four small capped, unlined drains within the interior converged into a single drain at the doorway where it exited from the house. This drain, which was excavated in 1999, ran on a serpentine course to the E and S towards the doorway of another house (KE087-025016-), where it ended abruptly. Secondary burnt deposits within the house were found to have extended through the doorway and over the top of the drain. The building of this house removed the N portion of an earlier house (KE087-025017-). The excavation of this and another house (KE087-025019-) showed that they belonged to Phase IV in a successive sequence of at least six phases of construction in this particular area of Bray Head. (Hayden 1999; Mitchell et al. n.d.) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Kerry. Volume I: South-West Kerry' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 30 May 2011