Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the bottom a gentle E-facing slope and at the edge of a raised peat bog that extends off to the E and S. First identified in centre-line testing (05E0983) for a new line of the N4 (O’Connor et al. 2005, 42), and later fully excavated (E003310) as a part of Aghamore 2. Excavation recorded five spreads of burnt mound material, other smaller spreads and two kilns. This is a subrectangular mound of broken and burnt stone (dims 5.5m x 4.3m; T 0.05-0.13m) with two others that are probably part of it extending over a wider area (dims c. 10m NNW-SSE; c. 5m ENE-WSW). The main mound overlay a subrectangular trough (dims 1.24m x 1.08m; D 0.2m), a circular pit (diam. 0.9m; D 0.5m), and an oval pit (dims 1.2m; 0.9m; D 0.21m) filled with similar layers containing stones, a charcoal-rich layer, and usually a thin sandy layer at the bottom. A charcoal sample from the round pit produced a C14 date of 3800 +- 40 BP (2390-2130 cal. BC), placing it in the Early Bronze Age. One of the associated stone spreads (dims 1.6m x 1.5m; T 0.05-0.4m) was part of the fill of a circular pit (diam. 1.6m; D 0.48) that was filled largely with stones, some of them burnt. The second stone spread (dims 4.75m x 2m; D 0.08m) was the top fill of a large excavated hollow (dims 5m x 1.8m; max. D 0.48m) also containing a layer of silty clay with burnt stone. A chert barbed and tanged arrowhead was recovered from an isolated pit c. 15m NW of the core of this monument. (McGowan and O’Connor 2009, 14-15)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 9 January 2020

O’Connor, D. J., Marta Muniz Pérez and Sheelagh Conran 2005 N4 Dromod-Roosky Bypass. Advance Archaeological Works Contract Licence No. 05E0983 Preliminary Report. Unpublished, CRDS

References

McGowan, L. and O’Connor, D. J. 2009 N4 Dromod – Roosky Bypass. Advance Archaeological Works Contract. Aghamore 2. Ministerial Direction A 31 (A31-021/E003310) Final Report, Unpublished, CRDS