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 (LI005-096002-) was located approx. 40m NE of a second fulacht fia (LI005-096001-). 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 excavated by Kate Taylor under licence A005/2019 (Taylor 2004 and 2006). It consisted of an area of burnt stone activity with a possible trough and incorporated a natural spring. A ‘spring was cut into boulder clay, although it appears to be a natural feature, it may have been deliberately enlarged. The hole was irregular and sub-circular in plan, measured 1.6m x 1.4m and was 0.66m deep with steep sides and an ill-defined stony base through which groundwater percolated. The fills of the spring appeared to have accumulated naturally. The lowest fill was a sandy silt, above which was a thick moss deposit that was overlain in turn by peat and clay layers. The upper fill was peat that contained a number of long pieces of wood, which were not retained as they were unworked, and mammal bone. The lowest fill contained hazel charcoal that returned a radiocarbon date of 2034-1892 cal. BC (UBA-16420, 3612±27 BP).’
A possible trough or ‘pit was also cut into the clay layer (boulder clay) and also redeposited clay that overlay peat. The pit was oval in plan, measured 1.2m x 0.9m and was 0.3m deep with steep sides and a fairly flat base, although the N was deeper and concave. The pit was filled with a natural silting and a burnt stone deposit that tipped into the feature from the W. It was radiocarbon dated to 1944-1695 cal. BC (UBA-16419, 3505±44 BP). Above the burnt stone deposit was a peat fill that was similar to surrounding deposits and probably indicates that the entire area was covered in peat after the features were abandoned. Cattle bone was recovered from this upper peat fill.’
‘To the W of the pit and spring was a crescentic deposit of burnt stone incl. hazel charcoal, that measured 6m x 2m and was just 0.05m thick. This deposit was similar to the burnt stone within pit and they were probably from the same origin.’

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 22 July 2020

References

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.

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. 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.