Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

At the W end of a glacial ridge on a flood plain 750m E of the River Shannon. The fulacht fia site (LI005-096001-) was located approx. 40m SW of a second deposit of burnt stone (LI005-096002-). The two fulacht fia were part of a cluster of Bronze Age monuments excavated on the Limerick Southern Ring Road at Coonagh West, including a trackway (LI005-097----) and two Bronze Age round buildings (LI005-095001/002-) located between 5m and 30m N of the burnt mound sites (Bermingham et al. 2013).
The fulacht fia was centered on a timber-lined trough and was excavated by Kate Taylor under licence A005/2019 (Taylor 2004 and 2006). Taylor describes the site; the ‘trough was trapezoidal in plan, measured 2m x 1.4m and was 0.36m deep, with three steep sides, one gradually sloping side (the narrower NE end) and a flat base. The trough was lined with alder planks, held into place by alder and hazel stakes.’
‘Timber lining consisted of two large base planks with three smaller base pieces at the sides. Side planks were placed on their edges on the S, E and W sides of the trough, the N plank was missing. The planks were held in place by thirteen stakes, between two and four in each corner. Stake No. 1355:11 was radiocarbon dated to 2286-2043 cal. BC (UBA-13263, 3759±28 BP).’
‘The burnt stone mound formed an irregular crescent shape around the NE end of the trough and measured approximately 8m x 6m and was up to 0.3m thick. The main mound deposit, a compact dark grey to black sandy clay material with burnt sandstone and charcoal inclusions (mainly alder), also tipped into the trough, overlying the timbers at the NE end. The W side of the mound was made up of ……. a compact yellow sandy clay with burnt stone but little charcoal.’

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 22 July 2020

References

Taylor, K. 2004 Prehistoric features and an early medieval enclosure at Coonagh West, Co. Limerick. In J. O’Sullivan and M. Stanley (eds.) New Routes to the Past, 73-9. Dublin. Wordwell Books.

Bermingham, N., Coyne, F., Hull, G., Reilly, F. and Taylor, K. 2013 River Road: The archaeology of the Limerick Southern Ring Road with contributions by Eoin Grogan, Penny Johnston, Linda Lynch, Stephen Mandal, Charles Mount, Joanna Nolan, Paul O’Keeffe, Helen Roche, Sara Pavía and Angela Wallace, NRA Scheme Monographs 14.

Taylor, K. 2008 Coonagh West: Prehistoric fulachta fiadh, settlement and trackway; early medieval enclosure. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2005: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, 241-2, No. 975. Dublin. Wordwell.