Burial Gd. — Illaunloughan,portmagee

National Monument No. 10001. Illaunloughan/Oileán Lócháin (KE087-036017-) is a small, low-lying island located in Portmagee Channel, c. 120m from the mainland at S and c. 400m WNW of Portmagee (Port Mhic Aoidh) village. The island stands in the civil parish of Killemlagh (Cill Imleach), in the barony of Iveragh (Uíbh Ráthach). Its habitable surface measures a maximum of 26m N-S x 50m E-W, and is c. 0.1ha in area. During certain low tides it can be reached on foot from the mainland. According to Marshall and Walsh (1998, 102) 'There is no historical documentation for the island, and the origin of its name is uncertain. Lochán may be the name of a saint associated with the island, a theory supported by the mention of two Lochans in the Martyrology of Oengus, written c. AD 800 (Stokes 1984, 255, 263) and by the inland location of Killoughane (Cill Lócháin) ecclesiastical site [KE065-058001-] at the eastern end of the Iveragh peninsula (O'Sullivan and Sheehan 1996, 357). Alternatively the island name may be derived from the island of the chaff. Four seasons of archaeological work, carried out from 1992 to 1995, have completed the excavation of about 70 per cent of the island. Excavation revealed that in the monastic period the burials were concentrated around the oratory (KE087-036008-) and in the E section of the gable shrine (KE087-036006-) (Marshall and Walsh 2005, 82, fig. 53a). In the medieval period the concentration of burials was to the W of the oratory (see fig. 53b). According to Marshall and Walsh (ibid., 133), the medieval and later burials all avoided using the space occupied by the reliquary shrine and its mound. According to local tradition, in the 'post-medieval period, the site was used primarily as a ceallúnach [KE087-036019-]' (ibid., 86, 83, fig. 53c; Excavations 1994, 45). Graveyard described by Marshall and Walsh (1998, 106) as; 'extended adult burials were uncovered to the west, north and south of the oratory [KE087-036008-]. There was no physical boundary to this graveyard at its western limit. Several poorly preserved burials underlay both the drystone oratory and the leacht [KE086-036021-]. Some of the graves were lintelled, while most of the others had the remains of stone lining along the sides with smaller stones protecting the burial. All of the graves were aligned from east to west, with their heads to the west. Many of the burials had quartz pebbles placed with the body, and two (of a lintel grave variant) had small regularly sized quartz pebbles placed neatly around the edges of their slab bases. No grave finds were placed with the bodies. While several skeletons from Illaunloughan have been selected for C14 dating, comparative evidence suggests that the bulk of the burials from the site date from the Early Medieval period. The graveyard did, however, continue in use into the Later Medieval period; six silver pennies of Edward I and Edward Ill, deposited sometime after AD 1351, were placed with a burial at the west side of the oratory [KE087-036008-]. In contrast to the Early Medieval period, many of the adult burials of the Medieval period were of women'. This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 1/1998). See attached plan showing the excavated graveyard on Illaunloughan, taken from Marshall and Walsh 2005, Figs 53a, 53b and 53c 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. 964. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 29 March 2022