Climate Change & Coastal Heritage

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Aerial view of Ferriter’s Promontory Fort and Castle, where the CHERISH excavation will take place this summer.

29 March 2021• Blog Posts

Ferriters Castle & Promontory Fort Excavation

News Letter

Introduction

The CHERISH team plan to carry out archaeological excavations at Ferriter’s Castle and Promontory Fort once current restrictions allow. The site is located on the Ballyferriter Headland, Dingle peninsula in Co. Kerry. Doon Point (Dún an Fheirtéaraigh) is a long, narrow promontory extending slightly over five hundred metres from north east to south west. Beautiful views from this site include Sybil head to the north and the Blasket Islands to the west. This prehistoric fort is one of 95 coastal promontory forts in County Kerry, and one of 508 such forts recorded around the Irish coastline. Promontory forts are being heavily impacted by erosion and therefore the CHERISH project are undertaking excavation on this fascinating site in order to learn more about this Irish archaeological site type. Ferriter’s Promontory Fort sits directly to the north of the Mesolithic- Neolithic transition period site at Ferriter’s Cove, which was excavated in the 1980s. Excavation holds the potential to reveal the very exciting use of this headland over thousands of years. The excavations will build on from our initial investigations at Ferriter’s Promontory Fort which included walk-over survey, detailed terrain modelling through drone mapping, and geophysical survey using both magnetic gradiometry and resistivity surveys. The results of these surveys have guided our plans for excavation, identifying anomalies in both the surface topography and sub-surface make-up that have the potential to be man-made.
Aerial view of Ferriter’s Promontory Fort and Castle, where the CHERISH excavation will take place this summer.
Aerial view of Ferriter’s Promontory Fort and Castle, where the CHERISH excavation will take place this summer.

Site Defences

The two sets of defences on this promontory fort are located where two natural coves occur dividing the promontory into two distinct sections. These two necks of land were utilised and enhanced by the builders of this fort with a series of banks and ditches, to form an outer and inner set of defences. The team will look at these defences during excavation to understand how and when they were constructed, as well as hoping to learn something about the people who built them and lived in this fort. The team will record and sample the construction materials of the banks and ditches to identify the different phases of construction, as well as the methods and materials used in their construction. We hope to use scientific dating methods to date some of the occupation and/ or construction phases.
The inner set of defences, stone work is visible on the inner bank of this double bank of defences.
The inner set of defences, stone work is visible on the inner bank of this double bank of defences.

Hut Sites

In the fifteenth or sixteenth century, reuse of the fort occurred when the Anglo-Norman Ferriter family constructed a castle on the inner bank of the outer defences. This tower house was originally a 4-5 storey rectangular tower, occupied by the Ferriter family until the seventeenth century. Ferriter’s Castle is built on the inner bank of the outer defences of the fort. The castle has been recorded in high resolution by a 3D laser scan survey. This provides an exact record of the castle at the time of survey, and allows the team to monitor any changes that occur to the castle. Excavations in this part of the fort will focus on the rectangular house sites, thought to be associated with the later medieval activity on the site. A trench will be excavated to expose the old floor level at the time of occupation and to see what type of construction was used to build them. This may allow us to determine how these structures relate to the tower house and its occupants. A well is recorded in this section of the site, a core will be taken to determine if it is, in fact, a well and to gather material for palaeo-environmental investigations.
CHERISH Laser Scan Survey Ferriter’s Castle, June 2018.
CHERISH Laser Scan Survey Ferriter’s Castle, June 2018.
In the second section of the fort, there are numerous hut sites and sub-circular depressions. These archaeological features are being heavily impacted by erosion due to their cliff side location and it is therefore, very important that the team garner as much information and knowledge as possible about this site type before they are eaten away by the sea. The team will excavate in full one of the larger hut sites, the example selected is not located along the cliff edge to provide a safe working environment for the team. These investigations will allow us to understand the nature of construction of these structures as well as when and why these hut sites were built. The sub-circular depressions in this area are unusual features, and the excavation trenches in these features will allow us to determine if they man-made or geological. If they are man-made features we will record and sample them to answer the same questions we have asked of the other archaeological features within this fort. During the excavation we may uncover artefacts that have been buried for hundreds or in some cases thousands of years. If we are lucky enough to uncover artefacts they could shed light on the different periods of usage of this site, and perhaps give us an insight into the type of people who lived at this beautiful, but exposed location.
Project archaeology Ted Pollard carrying out a geophysical survey of the site in 2019.
Project archaeology Ted Pollard carrying out a geophysical survey of the site in 2019.
The CHERISH team are very grateful to Dennis Curran for granting us permission to work on his land, his friendliness and generosity during survey work, and for the wealth of local knowledge he has shared with the team.

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4 March 2021• Irish Project Areas

Ballinskelligs, County Kerry

News Letter

Location Map

Introduction

Ballinskelligs Bay is located on the western seaboard of Ireland. Nestled on the south western extent of the Iveragh Peninsula the bay faces outwards towards the vast Atlantic, having once played a pivotal role in Kerry’s monastic landscape. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Skellig Michael lies off the Ballinskellig coast. The monastery of Skellig Michael was transferred to the west shore at Ballinskelligs in the mid eleventh century due to hazardous conditions on the rock.

The Priory

The priory of the Arroasian Canons of the Order of St Augustine was founded around 1210 and it retained possession of Great Skellig. The priory’s shoreline location has meant it has been the subject of much restoration work by the Office of Public Works. The erosion at the site has been happening since at least the eighteenth century and has resulted in the destruction of several buildings and much of the south east side of the monastery and graveyard. A substantial sea-wall, revetted by groynes, protects the site. The priory comprises a number of buildings which exhibit architectural details relating to various periods between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The priory was disbanded by 1578. An ancient hamlet is located approximately a 120 metres to the north west of Ballinskelligs Priory, just beyond the northern extent of the OPW seawall. This area is being effected by erosion, that may be attributed to the hard defences in the area.

McCarthy’s Castle

McCarthy’s castle is located to the north of the Abbey sitting on the tip of a narrow promontory of land that juts into the sea. This tower house is probably 16th century in date and associated with the McCarthy’s who were chieftains in Cork and Kerry. The promontory suffers badly from erosion and has changed substantially in living memory, some of this change is often attributed to the 20th century construction of the concrete pier that lies at the end of the Promontory. The castle ruins remain largely intact; however, the southern corner is badly damaged with a breakthrough in the wall in this area. This is partly due to exposure to the sea and the wall being thinner due to the mural stairs located in this corner of the tower house. The land around the castle is impacted by erosion. Excavations were undertaken at the castle in 1988 and 1991 by John Sheehan, University College Cork. Two external lean-to structures with pitched-cobble floors identified during excavation and post-dating the primary period of occupation of the castle are believed to have been a fish curling station. It is recorded that Sir William Petty established a fishery at Ballinskelligs.

The dated tree stump from Inny strand tells how a Bronze Age forest was present in the north of the bay, the continuation of buried peats past the present low water mark indicate the forest covered the area that denotes the intertidal zone today. The basal dates of the peat cores around the Bay inform of the formation dates and phases of the wetlands that now encompass Ballinskelligs Bay. These peat cores will provide further insights into the environmental and climate records for the Bay since the Neolithic Period. The palaeo-environmental evidence when considered in context of the pattern of change recorded due to geological processes around the bay since at least the mid-18th century and in context of predicted climate change impacts due to atmospheric change such as rising sea level indicates a continual loss of the coastal margin into the future as the predominate forces at play continue to enlarge the bay here at Ballinskelligs.

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25 August 2020• Blog Posts

The Crumbling Promontory Fort of Dunbeg

News Letter

The National Monument of Dunbeg, which translates as the little fort, is a popular tourist attraction in County Kerry with its distinctive rows of defences and spectacular views over Dingle Bay to Valentia Island and the World Heritage Site of Skellig Michael. Unfortunately, the site has been periodically closed to the public for repairs and safety measures as the sea continues to erode the cliffs. This erosion is particularly severe during storms, and storms are predicted to become more severe with climate change.

When you approach the promontory from the road, you walk through four banks, five ditches, and an inner drystone rampart. A central causeway crosses the banks to the rampart but people are encouraged to walk on the eastern side of the fort due to erosion at the entrance. An underground stone-built passage, known as a souterrain, extends for over 16m from the rampart to the third bank. A stone-flagged pathway did lead from the rampart entrance to a circular drystone structure known as a clochán in the interior of the fort

Views of the fresh cliff face of Dunbeg showing bank, ditches and rampart in centre and clochán to the right in April 2019
Views of the fresh cliff face showing bank, ditches and rampart in centre and clochán to the right in April 2019

We have a relatively good record of changes at this site as the promontory fort attracted the attention of19th century antiquarians and geologists as well as 20th-century tourists. George Du Noyer’s visited and recorded the site in 1856, and the triangular-shape promontory he drew has been indented up to 35m along its western side which sits on the 30m-high cliffs. This has resulted in the fort becoming more crescent-moon shape in plan today.

The entrance to Dunbeg (George Du Noyer in Archaeological Journal March 1858 vol. 15)
The entrance to Dunbeg (George Du Noyer in Archaeological Journal March 1858 vol. 15)
How it looks today with the original entrance to Dunbeg after collapse in April 2019
How it looks today with the original entrance to Dunbeg after collapse in April 2019 © Photographic Archive, National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland.

Human activity in the 19th century also impacted the fort, with hare hunters overturning stones, and stone being taken for building elsewhere. Drystone field walls that once crossed the fort banks and ditches were removed during Office of Public Works (OPW) restoration in 1892. The OPW also repaired the roof of one of the two guard chambers that sat on either side of the rampart wall entrance. The western guardhouse is no longer extant. The OPW repairs also made a curve at the rampart’s terminals and inserted a boundary wall. Previous plans of the site indicated there had been a straight rampart wall.

In 1897, Thomas Westropp said around 3m of land has fallen on the western side in the last 20 years. Professor R.A.S. MacAlister, later of University College Dublin, records that he visited the site in 1896 and again in 1898 and in that time the western end of the stone rampart had eroded into the sea. Another OPW visit in September 1915 sketches the disappearance of 9.5m of the western side of the rampart since 1897 and ground fissures, a sign of impending instability, were also shown.

In 1977, the OPW and National Monuments Service commissioned an excavation to examine the site, its dating and history of occupation before more features were lost. A view from the inside of the fort looking at the rampart wall shows the cliff erosion from the west had reached the western guardhouse to the side of the covered entrance. Excavation led by Professor Terry Barry from Trinity College Dublin revealed post holes, hearths and stake holes within the clochán and suggested wattle shelters supported by wooden posts and stakes. Analysis of occupation debris indicated a diet of pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, deer, birds and fish. Radiocarbon dates suggest it was inhabited in the 10th or 11th centuries AD. Further excavation at the rampart revealed an earlier shallow ditch radiocarbon dated to the 6th century BC. This indicates a long history of use at the site, though it may not have been continuous.

A mid-20th century image with the entrance repaired and two guard houses either side of the entrance.
A mid-20th century image with the entrance repaired and two guard houses either side of the entrance.
he 1970s view on the right shows the left guardhouse has started to be eroded. © Photographic Archive, National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland.
he 1970s view on the right shows the left guardhouse has started to be eroded.© Photographic Archive, National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland.

Within the last 7 years, the cliff has been experiencing another period of instability. In January 2014, a storm resulted in the southern side of the entrance through the rampart collapsing causing a section to fall away close to the passageway through the stone rampart. The CHERISH Project began early in 2017 and has been recording the latest changes with regular drone and laser scanner surveys. In December 2017, the site had to be closed again after flash flooding down Mount Eagle caused stream erosion within the fort causeway, banks and ditches. Then during Storm Eleanor on 3rd January 2018, most of the covered entrance through the rampart and the ground below collapsed into the sea. The last covered area of this entrance had collapsed by our next visit in April 2019.

Photograph of Dunbeg in April 2018 showing collapse entrance through the rampart
Photograph of Dunbeg in April 2018 showing collapse entrance through the rampart
Photograph of Dunbeg in April 2019 showing collapse entrance through the rampart
Photograph of Dunbeg in April 2019 showing collapse entrance through the rampart
Image of Dunbeg taken in December 2017 (wooden supports were erected in the 1980s)
Image of Dunbeg taken in December 2017 (wooden supports were erected in the 1980s)
Image of Dunbeg taken in April 2019 displaying very recent collapse of the entrance through the rampart from the southern side
Image of Dunbeg taken in April 2019 displaying very recent collapse of the entrance through the rampart from the southern side

Location Map

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