Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, on a natural rock terrace on the S slope of a low hill, some 45m to the WSW of Drombeg stone circle (CO143-051002-) and associated with hut site directly to the N (CO143-051001-). Excavation of this fulacht fiadh (Fahy 1960, 3-17) revealed a horseshoe-shaped drystone enclosing bank, a central slab-lined cooking pit, U-shaped hearth, and a well with associated overflow drainage channel. Associated are a C-shaped posthole structure enclosing an oval-shaped unlined pit containing burnt broken stone and a roasting pit, wedge-shaped in plan, and filled with broken burnt stone. Two samples from the fulacht fiadh were dated by radiocarbon analysis. The first, from beneath the mound, returned a date range between 109 and 349 AD, while the second, from the cooking pit returned a range between 368 to 608 AD. This corresponds to a maximum variation of 500 years between the dates, but the excavators believe that 'while it is unlikely that the site was in use for 500 years, it is possible that it was in intermittent use for several decades' (ibid., 15)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 1: West Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1992). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

This is a National Monument in State Guardianship (no. 381).

See attached photographs:
CO143-051003-: Aerial view directly above site, with fulacht fiadh to the SW of the modern rectangular enclosure.
CO143-051003-: central slab-lined cooking pit.

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Date of last revision: 27 June 2023

References

Fahy, E.M. 1960a A hut and cooking place at Drombeg, Co. Cork. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 65, 1-17.