Beneath a build-up of midden, the accumulated domestic and organic refuse of past inhabitants, and loose stone material, excavators uncovered a solid platform that researchers believe formed part of a medieval jetty. What is striking is not just the structure itself but the context around it: the platform sits within what was once a large lagoon, gradually reclaimed from the water during the later medieval period through deliberate dumping of material to extend usable land.

The excavation, carried out under licence number 01E0662, shed light on how the island's inhabitants managed their relationship with the shoreline over centuries. Scattery Island, known in Irish as Inis Cathaigh, had a long history of settlement, most famously as the site of a monastic community associated with Saint Senan, who is said to have founded his monastery there in the sixth century. By the later medieval period, the island supported a functioning community that needed practical infrastructure, including somewhere to moor boats and handle goods. The buried platform suggests that the eastern foreshore was once a more active edge of island life than its current appearance might imply, shaped as much by human effort as by tidal forces.