Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

In reclaimed pasture 25m W of the townland boundary with Rockbarton and 280m S of the ruins of Cahir Guillamore House (LI031-041019-). Burial (LI031-044----) located 130m to NE. Not depicted on OSi historic maps. Identified during archaeological testing associated with the proposed construction of 2 dwelling houses. Testing undertaken by Jacinta Kiely under licence no. 04E1272 (Kiely 2004), the results of which were summarised as following; ‘An assessment with testing was undertaken at Cahirguillamore on two house sites located within an archaeological complex. Test-trenches were excavated on the footprint of the access road, house foundations and percolation area. A fulacht fiadh was recorded in one of the trenches. The burnt mound measured c. 11m north-south by 15m. No further archaeological stratigraphy, features or artefacts were recorded in the trenches’ (www.excavations.ie 2004, No. 986; Kiely 2007, 240).
According to the excavator; 'One fulacht fiadh spread, consisting of burnt stone and dark greyish brown silty clay, was uncovered in Trenches 1, 3 and 5. The fulacht fiadh measures 15m from east to west and 11m from north to south. A small Sondage was excavated through the spread, 5m from east to west, 0.6 m from north to south to a depth of 0.6 m. The spread of burnt stone and dark greyish brown silty clay is up to 0.3m in depth and rested on a natural, light whitish grey clay. The trough of the fulacht fiadh was not uncovered. The fulacht fiadh was truncated on the southern half by a field boundary, which is no longer extant. field boundary is present in the Ordnance Survey map from 1927 (but not on the 1840 map). The field boundary is orientated east to west and is up to 3.8m diameter where it truncates the fulatht fiadh' (Kiely 2004, 3).

Compiled by: Martin Fitzpatrick

Date upload: 31 March 2021

References

Kiely, J. 2007 Cahirguillamore; Fulaht fiadh. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2004: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 240, No. 986. Dublin. Wordwell.

Kiely, J. 2004 Archaeological Test Excavation Report, Caherguillamore, Bruff, Co. Limerick. Unpublished report (Licence No. 04E1272), submitted by Jacinty Kiely to the National Monuments Service, Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.