Ballyvourney or Baile Bhuirne is a small village in Co. Cork that shelters a locally famous pilgrimage named after a supposed sixth-century Abbess: St. Gobnet. Gobnet, who may have been the brother of a more senior contemporary saint, Abban is generally depicted with a bee-hive, a reference to a story in which she defended herself and her followers from a group of raiders through prayer and the judicious application of bee stings! 

In the early fifties it was decided by the people of Ballyvourney that a statue of St Gobnet should be erected close to the location of a holy well and a circular stone structure known as St Gobnet's House or Kitchen and long supposed to be the foundations of a round tower. During construction of the statue a crucible was found and it was decided that M.J. O'Kelly from University College Cork (excavator of Newgrange) should be invited to carry out an archaeological excavation. 

The excavation revealed extensive remains of post-holes, pits and drains with a first phase of un-enclosed activity with a few possible rectangular post-built structures. the second phase saw the raising of the ground level and construction of a large circular stone structure (St Gobnet's House) with a central post-hole. A well was also dug in front of the entrance. The second phase produced a large amount of slag, pits and a hearth indicating extensive ironworking, probably mainly smithing but possibly also smelting. Artefacts discovered on the site indicate an Early Medieval date (c. 400 A.D. - 1100 A.D.) but no radiocarbon dates are available.

Elswhere on the site a mound called St Gobnet's Grave may be prehistoric and is associated with a number of Bullaun Stones, artefacts I have suggested elsewhere may be related to ironworking. This potential link with a deeper, pagan past combined with the unusual evidence for ironworking on the site of a community of female ascetics has made me wonder more than once if St Gobnet may be connected with previous traditions of worship of the Celtic smith-god Gobniu?

Close by St Gobnet's Grave, is a graveyard with an intact protestant church and a ruined Medieval chapel which has seen some serious (and worrying) alterations since O'Kelly's excavations including the addition of a PVC conservatory on one side and a number of gawdy lights attached directly to the walls of the Nave and chancel. The site continues to this day as a place of pilgrimage with offerings still being left at St Gobnet's Grave and House. A new tradition of rubbing crude cross shapes into stones on the site could be seen as 'vandalism' but i prefer to look at it as a sign of a living site, still important to the community (and not just a handful of archaeologists). It also serves as a reminder that traditions of practice at ancient religious sites need not always reach back into the distant past, despite what we may like to imagine. 

I was at the UCD Images of Research awards last night and was lucky enough to come away with two runner-up prizes. I'm chuffed to even get a mention considering the quality of the entries (you can check out all my entries here). I've used one of my runner-up pics as the new blog header (I will be adding new headers over time as the mood takes me) and the other winner can be found in the gallery above. Its called 'Igniting the gases'. There are a couple of other archaeology-related images in the exhibition, including a few rare photos of glass beads from the Bronze Age hillfort at Rathgall, Co. Wicklow.

Readers might be interested in DIG, an exhibition showing photos and drawings from archaeological excavations in Smithfield, Dublin. Its showing at The Complex, 18-21 Smithfield Square. Its an interesting idea and I'll definitely be popping in. I might include it in my Culture Night itinerary when the exhibition stays open until 10pm.