Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

On a SW-facing slope in low-lying terrain sloping towards the Douglas River, in a reclaimed field. Lying immediately SW of another fulacht fia (KK010-067005-) and one of a number of fulachta fia (KK010-067001- c. 100m to NW; KK010-067003- c. 100m to the NNW; KK010-067004- c. 80m to N and KK010-067005- c. 100m to the SE and KK010-067006- c. 100m to ESE) in the vicinity recorded by Prendergast (1955, 10). This fulacht fia and the adjacent one were partially excavated Prendergast (1955, 1-3). She states that these, ‘may be described as a double site since it comprised two oval mounds and the shallow intervening space’. The mound (KK010-067002-), ‘was composed of an oval heap of burnt stones, ashes and charcoal now covered by the humus layer and a fairly even thickness of soil. The burnt layer was more than half a metre deep at the centre of the mound and all the cuttings it immediately overlay the marl bottom. In the south-north cutting the edges of what seemed to be two pits into the marl appeared, one of those was completely excavated and proved to be an oval pit nearly 2.0 by 1.25 metres and half a metre deep, with a dished bottom and entirely filled with the burnt material' (ibid.). It is not visible at ground level.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 19 December 2018

References

Prendergast, E. 1955 Pre-historic cooking places in Webbsborough district. Old Kilkenny Review 8, 1-10.