Excavations of Reask site a mile east of Ballyferriter, in 1972.

The Council built a new road to replace the one dividing the ecclesiastical site. 

Historic building must be protected, before it is to late.

The proposed record of protected structures being compiled by Kerry County Council in accordance with the Planning & Development Act 1999 is a mammoth task. The list is an ongoing one and will be added to, until such time as it is very comprehensive.

Already 485 buildings have been selected to be included in the list, but only one building in the county- Ballymacelligott Creamery is already a protected structure, by order of the County Council. 

There are hardly any convents in the list and  Presentation Convent in Castleisland would be worthy of preserving, a fine example of cut stone workmanship at a time when stone cutting was a labour associated with Tralee Jail and other places of detention.

The significance of a protected building includes: architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or Technical aspects.

photo: Padraig kennely, The Kerry's Eye June 2001

June 2000, Archaeologist discovered 85 skeletons at a Viking graveyard at Ballymacelligot.         The skeletons and bones have been forwarded to scientist for examination, The find at this 8th century site,  85 skeletons, most of which were headless, decorative beads made from bone and stone and animal bones, including the heads of two cattle and bores' tusks.                                  More than half the body's are children from the ages of 7 years to 12 years. The latest finding was that of an intact skeleton, which has been identified as a Viking warrior in his late 30s.                Iron weapons were also found near him. The caves are one of the most important historical finds ever in this country.                       

Cllr Billy Leen has called on the Government to couple this new discovery with the 122 Burial mounds found in Ballycarthy a number of years ago. "There is huge potential to open these up to public and they can become a huge tourist attraction,"

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Viking Navigation

In 1948, half of a small wooden disk was found, the site was below a Benedictine Convent ruins in the southern parts of Greenland. An earlier Norse settlement was found of c1100 AD,  and it was from this site that the disk was identified as a sun-bearing compass.

The complete object would have been circular, the notches marking the 32 points of the compass, a series of closely spaced parallel lines at one end marking the north point. The central perforation would have held a conical pin. Two incised lines on the surface correspond to the lines traced out by the tip of the shadow cast by the pin at the equinoxes and at the summer solstice.

Archaeological evidence has shown that the Vikings sailed across the Atlantic to America where a Norse settlement dating to c1000 AD has been excavated in Newfoundland

National Museum of Ireland          

Work on the new Tralee to Killarney N22 road has unearthed what could well be a Bronze Age ringed settlement near Flemby, which archaeologists have described as one of the most exciting finds ever made in Kerry. The find includes a Bronze Age House, a Burial tomb, a large collection of pottery and an axe head.

The site is believed to date from some time between 2500BC and 2000BC.