The Beginish house is a stone house and

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

associated with the Viking period, located in

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Location

The Beginish house is located in Canroe (''An Ceann Rua'', "the red headland"), on the eastern part of

Beginish Island Beginish () is an island in Valentia Harbour, in south west Kerry Kerry, Ireland. Geography Dominating the northern skyline is Doulus Head and Killelan mountain, with Valentia island to the south and Ballycarbery to the east. The north we ...

, an island in Valentia Harbour.

History

The settlement at Beginish was inhabited by

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

s between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.

Description

8 stone houses were associated with field systems, 8

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s and 15 animal shelters. A

runic Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...

inscription was found used as lintel for a house, and a bone pin and

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

were found.

References

Buildings and structures in County Kerry Tourist attractions in County Kerry National monuments in County Kerry {{Ireland-struct-stub