Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, in an area of low gravel ridges with shallow valleys between, located in wet, lowlying peaty ground on the S edge of a deeper area of blanket bog.
This fulacht fia was discovered during archaeological monitoring in advance of the construction of the Knock-Claremorris By-pass (Phase 2). It was excavated (00E0727) in 2000 (Zajac 2000).
It consisted of a roughly circular spread (diam. c. 10m; D 0.5m) of heat-shattered stones and charcoal. It had been partly levelled during land reclamation and land drains cut through it. Beneath the mound, to E of centre, was a trapezoidal, plank-lined trough (1.8m NE-SW; 1m NW-SE) set in boulder clay. The trough timbers were predominately of alder, with one end plank of willow. A wooden peg, made of hazel, held the E end of the trough in place. A possible whetstone, hazelnut shells and three fragments of animal bone were recovered from the fill of the trough. (Zajac 2000)

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 8 December 2021

References

Zajac, S. 2000 2000:0739 Shanvaghera: Fulacht fia. Excavations.ie Database of Irish excavation reports. https://excavations.ie/report/2000/Mayo/0005566/