Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

On the western outskirts of Ballina town, located close to the base of an E facing slope. This fulacht fia was discovered in 2019 during archaeological testing of a green-field site in advance of a proposed housing development; it was subsequently fully excavated (Crumlish 2019). There was no surface trace of the fulacht fia prior to the pre-development testing.
Excavation revealed that the fulacht fia consisted of a mound (8.2m N–S, 2.5-5.2m E–W; D 0.33m) of blackened soil, heat-shattered stones and charcoal. It was roughly horse-shoe shaped in plan, opened to the E. It overlay natural subsoil of grey/cream-coloured clay. A roughly rectangular-shaped trough (1.6m WNW–ESE, 1.35m NNE–SSW; D 0.27-0.33m) was centrally located beneath the burnt mound, cut into the natural subsoil. It was filled with burnt mound material and an orange-brown clay. Three post-holes (diam. 0.13-0.19m; D 0.18-0.3) were cut into two corners of the trough, two in the WSW corner and one in the NNW corner. A plectrum-shaped pit (1.28m N–S, 0.5-1.15m E–W; D 0.22-0.36m) was located 1.7m NE of the trough. It had a stepped profile, with the N half of the pit was deeper than the S half; both halves were flat-bottomed with steep sides. It was filled with black friable silt loam with charcoal flecks, above burnt mound material, and was cut into subsoil. A shallow ditch (Wth 0.15-0.55m; D 0.08-0.2m), enclosing a small oval area (1.3m NW–SE; c. 0.75m NE–SW) was located 2m to E of the fulacht fia. No artefacts were recovered during the excavation. Another fulacht fia (MA030-099----), located 20m to N, was also excavated. (Crumlish 2019).

Attached images are uploaded courtesy of Richard Crumlish:

MA030-098----_01: Rectangular trough, with two stakeholes visible in its NW corner.
MA030-098----_02: Plectrum-shaped pit found to NE of the trough.

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 13 August 2019

References

Crumlish, R. 2019 Preliminary report on the rescue excavation of two fulachta fiadh at Ardoughan townland, Ballina, Co. Mayo. Excavation Licence No. 19E0138. Planning Ref. No. P19/119. August 2019. Unpublished report submitted to NMS.