Round House

The Central Round House was the family dwelling of the Boaire. They may have been up to 10 - 25 people living here, which would include the farmers wives and children. Polygamy was a widely practised custom in Early Christian times, even though it was prohibited by the Church.

Polygamy was essential to provide a number of male heirs. Other family members include sons, daughters, cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents. Visitors by day or staying overnight could be Storytellers, poets, singers, iron makers, blacksmith and bronze casting, skin curing, leather making and tooling, fabric weaving, leather working and tooling, dye preparation and cloth dying, fabric weaving and others.

The walls are built by a technique called wattle-and-daub, where hazel rods are weaved in and out of the posts and then mud, hair, dried grass, and animal blood were mixed together and daubed onto the wattling to form a wall.

The Thatch is made of local water-reeds and is about one foot thick. A hole is left at the top to a alleviate smoke from the central hearth. Thatch provides great insulation, its cool inside during a hot day and keeps in the heat on a cold day.

For our reconstruction the roof was thatched by a new-age traveller from cool mountain, in Dunmanway. He offered to thatch in exchange for free food and drink, and even slept there the night it was finished.

The raised beds, are built of wattle and are reconstructed on either side of the house. They would have been downed / dressed with wool and soften more with heather and rushes.

The central hearth / fire would probably only have been used at night-time, for warmth and light or for cooking when the weather was bad outside. There probable would have been meat / fish hung from the rafters over the fire to be smoked, and a large cauldron cooking gruel or meat, or bread baking on hot stones.

There were three southerrains discovered on the site during the excavation. They were used for storing dairy products and a place of refuge in times of attack. There is one only restored here for inspection There used to be a southerrain coming through the central house running to the corner of the ringfort. It collapsed when the ringforts was occupied a around 1,000 years ago.

There are examples of early Christian clothing within the fort. The colour of the dress, showed your rank in society, dark, dull colours signified lower classes and bright colours such as reds, purples symbolised the higher classes e.g. clergy, kings, and lords. Dyes would have been got from wildberries, oak bark, shellfish, flowers,wood etc. All spinning and dying and weaving would have been done by the woman.

It was common for children to be sent away from home to be fostered in Early Christian Ireland, for political and protectional purposes. Boys were fostered from the age of 7 - 17, and girls from the age of 7 - 14. The child was educated and trained in the areas appropriate to their rank. There are stories of the emotional bond between foster brothers in the Irish saga "Tain Bo Cuailgne", between Cuchulainn and Ferdia.

The only available light is the doorway, which would have been covered with cloth or skin at night. The reason why it is so low is defensive purposes, when an intruder tries to enter, a member of the family could stand at the side of the door and strike the daring attacker. Another advantage is that the occupant had a direct view of the entrance way.

If you can imagine the atmosphere here at the time, dark and smokey and the smell of meat smoking and other foods, and up to 20 people at any one time, in very unhygienic conditions. Small animals may have been kept in the round house also.