Ecclesiastical enclosure, Reenard, Co. Kerry

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Ecclesiastical Sites

Ecclesiastical enclosure, Reenard, Co. Kerry

On a low rise just southeast of Reenard Point, close to the shoreline of Valentia Harbour, an early ecclesiastical site sits largely forgotten beneath layers of vegetation and sod.

It is not marked by any grand ruin or prominent landmark, and its boundaries are defined more by surrounding field walls than by any surviving enclosure of its own. Yet within its roughly 28 by 50 metre spread, the site holds a burial ground, a small stone cross, and the foundations of what were once two conjoined huts, the whole ensemble quietly pointing to a community that once gathered here for prayer, burial, and shelter.

The burial area occupies a low mound in the southeastern corner of the site, where numerous upright stone slabs, some set in regular rows, still break the surface. Scattered among them are quartz stones and pebbles, a detail that recurs at early medieval Irish sacred sites, where white quartz carried symbolic or ritual significance. Tilting noticeably to the west at the mound's edge stands a narrow stone cross, 1.4 metres high, with short rudimentary arms placed below the midpoint of its shaft, a proportioning typical of early Irish crosses before the form became more elaborate. At the northwest end of the site, near an outcrop of rock, lie the foundations of two huts built in the dry stone technique, that is, without mortar, relying entirely on the careful fitting of stones. The more northerly of the two is the better preserved, with walls about 1.2 metres wide and an internal diameter of 5.2 metres; its entrance faces north. The southern hut is more obscured, its wall traceable only in patches through the turf. A separate oval mound of stony material lying roughly 4.7 metres to the west may represent the remains of a third hut. A souterrain, an underground stone-lined passage often associated with early monastic and settlement sites, was recorded near here by a source identified as Skinner, though no one locally now remembers it.

The site is overgrown and its unenclosed sides blend into the cultivated field around it, so distinguishing its extent on the ground requires some patience. The stone cross, leaning at its angle on the mound's western edge, is probably the most immediately visible feature, and the upright burial slabs nearby reward closer inspection for their arrangement and the quartz stones placed among them.

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