Early medieval shrines in north-west Iveragh: new perspectives from Church Island, near Valentia, Co. Kerry

Abstract:The early-medieval ecclesiastical site on Church Island was reportedly fully excavated in the 1950s (O'Kelly 1958). Conservation works on Church Island provided an opportunity to re-examine the site and procure samples for dating. The recent excavations also uncovered a previously unrecorded terraced shrine on the island. Radiocarbon dating of burials on it suggest it was built between the seventh and ninth centuries and enlarged in the tenth or eleventh century, at roughly the same time that the large stone oratory was built on the island. It was previously suggested that these shrines were not erected on sites within the ecclesiastical estates in the area but the surviving archaeological evidence may not substantiate this idea. The small number of sites excavated and the ambiguous and limited nature of the archaeological evidence uncovered allow for few definite conclusions to be drawn regarding the motives for the building of a shrine on any individual site.