Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, 14m W of a watercourse running N-S. Not marked on OSi 6-inch maps. Fulacht Fia (site TR/2/18/3) identified on Bórd Gáis Éireann Curraleigh West-Limerick gas pipeline (Gowen 1988, 84, 129-32). Site excavated by Claire Walsh and Eoin Grogan the results of which were summarised as following; ‘The levelled mound material of this site was revealed beneath recent subsoil and a spread of upcast from a deepened stream. It appeared in section when a ramp was graded down to a fording point across the stream for pipeline traffic. Later, during trenching, two wooden troughs were revealed after they were cut roughly in half by machine. The exposed mound material surviving to 8-30cm in depth extended for a maximum of 14m along the ramp/trench faces (the pipe trench was 4m wide at this point). It was composed of fire-shattered stones in a black charcoal-flecked clay matrix. It lay on a deep deposit of fine, stone-free river clay and silt.Three features were exposed in the trench face.. There were two wooden troughs and a pit, all filled with mound material. The troughs occurred on two different levels, indicating at least two phases of activity on the site. The lowermost trough revealed three round, well-preserved, base timbers and decayed side timbers. The second trough revealed the badly decayed remains of three basal planks. It seemed to be the earlier of the two. None of the timbers were suitable for dendrochronological dating, but samples of the small structural stakes were taken for radiocarbon dating. There were no finds’ (Grogan and Walsh 1987, 28).

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 19 September 2021

References

Gowen, M. 1988 Three Irish gas pipelines: new archaeological evidence in Munster. Bray. Wordwell.

Grogan, E. and Walsh, C. 1987 Raheen (BGE); Fulacht fiadh. In C. Cotter (ed.), Excavations 1986: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 28, Site No. 56. Dublin. Organisation of Irish Archaeologists.