Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

An archaeological monitoring licence was applied for by Archaeological Projects in order to monitor five areas outside of the road take of the proposed N7 Heath to Mayfield, Monasterevin bypass route. Areas 2, 3, 4, and 5 were monitored under excavation licence number 03E0554, Two fulachta fiadh (LA009-062001-; LA009-062002-) uncovered during monitoring of Area 3 were cleaned and recorded under the same excavation licence number 03E0554. John Tierney of Eachtra Archaeological Projects monitored the four areas. The fulachta fiadh in Area 3 were cleaned using hoes, shovels and mattocks, and recorded by written account,, photographs and scaled drawings by a team of four field archaeologist under the direction of John Tierney. The fulachta fiadh will be covered with terram, a semi-permeable membrane that will allow water through but will not allow soil from above to mix with soil from below, and then covered with gravel and topsoil. The two fulachta fiadh are 25 m apart. An area of 5 m sq. was cleaned around Site 1 (LA009-062001-), and an area of 5 m sq. was cleaned around Site 2 (LA009-062002-). Both sites are positioned on the side of a gentle northwest-facing slope and a natural spring is located downslope to the northwest Jamestown House is situated c. 50 m east of Site 1. A pond, likely to have been deliberately constructed by the Jamestown House inhabitants, which utilises the already existing natural spring, is located a short distance to the northeast of the site. The sites are positioned between 66.50m and 67.40m OD.
Site 2 consists of a large spread of burnt black sediment with inclusions of burnt sandstone, some limestone and a strip of mid-yellowish brown sediment (Feature 17) near the edge of the black material and peat. There is no obvious trough location visible from the initial cleaning and recording; it may be located under the large spread of burnt black material. The linear yellowish deposit, Feature 17, measuring 4.35 m by 0.3m, may be the fill of a slot trench for a fence, perhaps to keep the burnt mound material in place, not spreading down the hill. No artefacts were uncovered during the cleaning of the site (Tierney 2003, 2-4).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 21 January 2013

References

Tierney, J. 2003 Archaeological Monitoring Report, External Works; N7 Heath Mayfield Bypass Co Laois & Co. Kildare. Licence No. 03E0554. Unpublished report, Eachtra Archaeological Projects.