Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

On flat pasture 314m ENE of Castle Ievers and 315m SW of the townland boundary with Drombeg. One of a group of four prehistoric sites (LI031-217/218/219/220----) excavated within 600m on the Bord Gáis Éireann's Pipeline to the West in 2002 in Tullerboy townland (Grogan et. al. 2007). No trace of the monument was present on historic maps or aerial photographs prior to the discovery of the site during pipeline construction.
The site (ext. dims. 11.6m N-S; 7.8m E-W) was composed of seven large pits and numerous smaller pits. Most were shallow, possible natural depressions within the sub-soil containing charcoal mixed with clay. Some of the site was covered by a thin spread of burnt stone and charcoal. A sub-oval pit (ext. dims. 1.8m N-S; 1.3m E-W) contained a series of concentric stake-holes along the base and occasionally in the centre. This was seen as a possible roasting pit, with stakes supporting a rack, alternatively the stakes may have retained a wooden trough. This site was interpreted as remnant of a fulacht fia (Halpin 2004, 348).

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 27 October 2020

References

Halpin, B. 2004 Tullerboy (BGE 3/73/6); Pits. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2002: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland, 348, No. 1264. Wordwell, Bray.

Grogan, E., O'Donnell, L. and Johnston, P. 2007 The Bronze Age landscapes of the pipeline to the West. Bray. Wordwell.