Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Located at the top edge of a slope, which originally formed the side of a natural pond, on a natural elevation at the NE end of Lough Mourne, immediately to NE of a Neolithic cairn (DG086-002001-). The fulacht fia was discovered and fully excavated in 2011 during an archaeological excavation carried out at the cairn in advance of the proposed development of a dam at Lough Mourne (Delaney 2013).
The fulacht fia consisted of a roughly horseshoe-shaped mound (L 15m; Wth 13m; D 0.45m) of heat-shattered sandstone, enclosing on the NW side a timber-lined trough. The rectangular trough pit (L 1.6m NE−SW; Wth 1.1m; D 0.44m) was cut through a layer of peat into subsoil. It was lined with split timber planks and lengths of roundwood, wedged in place with internal corner pegs. The trough base was lined with nine planks, and the sides were each three planks high. The trough timbers were predominately alder, with one piece of bog oak. The trough had been disturbed and the N side was gone. The trough was filled with remnants of moss and angular heat-shattered sandstone fragments in charcoal-rich peaty soil. The charcoal fragments were identified as belonging to four species, oak, alder, hazel and a species of the hawthorn/mountain ash family. This primary fill was overlain by natural slippage from the mound, which had slumped into the trough after the fulacht fia had gone out of use.
A sample of alder wood, taken from the trough for radiocarbon analysis, returned a Late Bronze Age date, 1109-897 BC (UBA 19997) (calibrated to 2 sigma). A number of shallow pits, located on slightly higher ground 3-4m W of the fulacht fia, appeared to be associated with it. One kidney-shaped pit (L 2.26; Wth 0.77; D 0.42) with a fill high in charcoal content (oak), may have served as a second trough. A single retouched flint blade was recovered from this pit. (Delaney 2013, 21-22).
An early Bronze Age wedge tomb (DG086-002004-) was found 25m to SW at the SW edge of the Neolithic cairn (DG086-002001-), a pit (DG086-002006-), located c. 30m to SE, and a burnt spread (DG 086-002005-), located c. 60m to SE, were both dated to the middle Bronze Age (Delaney 2013).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 16 January 2018

References

Delaney, S. 2013 Final report of an archaeological excavation undertaken at Lough Mourne, Co. Donegal. For URS, on behalf of Donegal County Council. Licence no. 10E0309, 10R0103. April 2013. Unpublished report submitted to National Monuments Service.