Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Fulacht fia identified during archaeological monitoring of topsoil stripping on the road widening scheme of the N24 by Sarah McCutcheon (McCutcheon 2002, 192). The site was excavated by McCutcheon and O’Connell, under licence no. 00E0310 and the results described as following; ‘The burnt spread consisted of a compact layer of heat-shattered stone and charcoal within blackened, carbonised clay. It incorporated an area of 20m (west-north-west/east-south-east) x 7.5m within the area of the excavation. To the north and east it was bounded by peat, and to the west it was bounded by marl. The spread overlay these natural layers and had an average depth of 0.16m and a maximum depth of 0.23m. It contained the remains of a number of plough furrows. There was no trough nor any other cut features directly associated with the burnt spread. Three small stake-holes were found to post-date it. The area beyond the southern limit of excavation was probed to ascertain the full extent of the site. The full dimensions as detected were 24.5m north–south x 21.5m. As with the excavated area, there were no surface indications of the burnt spread south of the limit of excavation’ (www.excavations.ie 2000, Site No. 585)

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 7 July 2020

References

McCutcheon, S. & O’Connell, A. 2000 Stratigraphic report on the excavation of a burnt spread at Grange East, Co. Limerick. Unpublished report (Licence No. 00E0310) submitted by Limerick County Council to Dúuchas The Heritage Service.

McCutcheon, S. 2002 Grange East; Burnt Spread. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary descriptions of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 192, No. 585. Bray. Wordwell.