What is recorded here

Three long houses stand in a row beside the easternmost church at Oughtmama, their double-faced walls still rising above the grass. The best-preserved chamber measures ten metres across and keeps a narrow window embrasure in its east wall, though no entrance remains visible. The other two have flattened into shallow platforms marked only by low scarps. They sit within the large ecclesiastical enclosure, suggesting ordinary domestic life once clustered around the sacred centre before the settlement emptied and the earth took back most of its shape.

Named ‘Oughtmama Town (site of)’ on the 1840 and 1921 OS 6-inch maps and listed as ‘Settlement deserted’ in the RMP (1996). Indicated on the OS maps within a large ecclesiastical enclosure (CL003-032007-). The only above-ground remains of dwellings are about 45m E of the most easterly of the three churches at Oughtmama where there are the remains of three houses in a row each orientated NE-SW. They are defined by grassed over double-faced walls and platforms. The most northerly is the best preserved (int. dims. 10.4m NE-SW; 4.5m NW-SE; ext. dims. 12.4m NE-SW; 7.25m NW-SE). The N and S walls (av. T 0.8m) rise 0.2-0.4m over the interior and the E and W walls rise 0.7-0.8m. The bottom of a window embrasure (inside Wth 1.4m) is on the E wall, narrowing to the outside. There is no visible entrance. The remains of the second house, 20m to the S, comprise a simple platform (5.4m NW-SE; 13.2m NE-SW) defined by scarps (H 0.3-0.4m) except at N where the platform merges with the ground. 6m S of this is a third platform (4.5m NW-SE; 11.2m NE-SW) also defined by scarps (H 0.2-0.3m) except at E where a double-faced wall (Wth 0.5m) can be seen. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 13 February 2018

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