- Early Christianity and its Monuments -
Small Ecclesiastical SitesEarly religious centres probably conformed in general physical appearance to a
similar pattern throughout western and northern Britain. The earliest churches and
associated buildings were probably of wood, which continued to be used well
beyond the tenth century.6 Churches of large size appear comparatively early, as
indicated by the seventh-century description of the wooden church at Kildare
(Radford 1977: 5-6). The larger church sites are characterized by multiple churches
used for different purposes. Small churches, less suitable for large congregations, are
associated with small ecclesiastical sites of uncertain status, such as Church Island,
Co. Kerry (Figure 37.3).
In Ireland, a range of small church sites has now been recognized which probably
provided some level of pastoral care in the rural community.7 It has been estimated
that the known pre-ninth-century place and tribal names in Ireland include those
of approximately 250 churches, using elements such as dumach (grave-mound),
cell (cella, cellola, aecclesia), senchell (sen chell, 'old church'), domnach (dominicus,
'little church') (Sharpe 1992). It would appear that as late as the seventh century,
lay people were buried in the traditional burying place of the kin group - Christians,
distinguished by crosses, may have lain side by side with pagans. Burial in con-
secrated ground need not have been usual or normal at this date (O'Brien 1992),
though in Ireland every church was expected to have a burial ground (Rule of
Patrick, 6).
Many early ecclesiastical sites are still places of Christian devotion, either with
continuing use of the cemetery, or visits to holy wells (such as St Seiriol's well,
Penmon, Gwynedd, and Holywell, Clwyd) or to the tombs of founding saints. This
has often limited archaeological work to rescue investigations, and more extensive
excavation is needed before their development can be fully understood. The general
form and layout of some smaller eccelesiastical sites may be illustrated by a few
published examples (Figure 37.2).
Church Island (Co. Kerry; Figures 37.2, no. 5) is a small ecclesiastical site on
a tidal islet on the north side of Valencia Island. The first of the two main phases
Figure 37.2 Plans of some early ecclesiastical sites (no phasing is shown).
Key: G = graves, C = church, V = vallum, E = entrance, L = leacht, H = house or clochan,
R = round tower, J = St John's cross, M = St Martin's cross
1 -Probable ecclesiastical site at Kilmacoo, Co. Cork (redrawn from Hurley 1982; fig. 18.7);
2 - Nendrum, Co. Down (redrawn from Archaeological Survey of Northern Ireland 1966);
3 -Iona, where Adomnan mentions a church (ecclesia; oratorium; sacra domus), a number of
huts for monks (cubicula), a hut where Columba slept with bare rock for couch and stone for
a pillow (domus; hospitium; hospitiolum), one in a higher place for writing (tegoriolum; tego-
rium), a building for guests (hospitium), a communal building probably with kitchen (domus;
monasterium), a barn (horreum) and shed (canaba). The plan is based on ground and geo-
physical survey and excavation (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland); 4 - Inishmurray, Co. Sligo (redrawn from Wakeman 1893: 13);
5 - Church Island, Co. Kerry (redrawn from O'Kelly 1958: pI. XVII); 6 - Reask, Co.
Kerry (redrawn from Fanning 1981: fig. 2).745