Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Fulacht fia that was excavated prior to the construction of the section of the M7 known as the Limerick Southern Ring Road. A multi period site (LI006-092----) lies c. 127m to the west. Identified during the archaeological monitoring of topsoil stripping and described ‘as a spread of burnt soil, shattered stone and charcoal c. 20m in diameter in the centre of the road take’ (Connolly 2001). The site was excavated by Michael Connolly under Licence No. 01E0406 and the results were summarised as following; ‘Excavation showed that the burnt spread represented the remains of a crescentic mound of burnt material surrounding a natural depression, which appears to have been used as the trough. A shallow, circular area of fire-reddened subsoil, 2.5m in diameter, was excavated 3.6m south-west of the main burnt spread. An arrangement of four post-holes was excavated around the fire-reddened spread, and an argument could be made concerning their possible function as the supports for a cooking-spit over the fire. No artefacts were recovered from the site.’ (www.excavations.ie 2001:790; Connolly 2003, 241).

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 16 June 2020

References

Connolly, M. 2001 Archaeological excavation of a fulacht fiadh at Newtown, Co. Limerick, found during the monitoring of the Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase 1. Unpublished report (Licence No. 01E0406) submitted by Aegis Archaeology Ltd. on behalf of Limerick Co. Co. to the National Monuments Service, Dúchas.

Connolly, M. 2003 Newtown, Co. Limerick Fulacht fiadh. In I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 241 (No. 790). Bray. Wordwell.