Excavations at Ferriter’s Cove, near Ballyferriter, revealed evidence of hunter/ gatherer groups, who, while camping in the area at separate periods spread over hundreds of years, exploited food sources along the coast, and used locally-found stones to make tools.
This site was inhabited during the latter part of the Mesolithic Period (or Middle Stone Age), 8000-4000 BCE. This seasonally used site produced remains of a wide range of food such as hazel nuts, red deer, pig, hare, and birds (including the guillemot and gannet). There were 14 different species of fish identified, among them wrasse, conger eel, thornback ray, tope and haddock.an
Middens (dumps) of shellfish can still be seen in the sand dunes of the area, where they were deposited 6,000 years ago. Among the more important finds were some cow bones, dating to 5700 BC indicating contact with early farmers also living in the area, as well as some human bone.