Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the lower, south-eastern end of the peat basin directly behind (to NW of) Michael Gerry O’Malley’s house. The basin is overlooked at the north-western end by two other fulachtaí fia (MA085-059----, MA085-060----). Traces of the fulacht fia are visible on the north-eastern bank of the stream close to its outflow point from this basin. A narrow trackway runs along the north-eastern bank of the stream, separated from it by a low embankment.

An almost totally obliterated fulacht fia, apparently destroyed during the construction of the trackway that runs along the stream bank. John Gerry O’Malley (pers. comm.) remembered seeing lots of ‘red stones’ when making/widening the trackway some years ago. A mass of small heat-fractured stone (L c. 8m) is still visible in the face of the embankment on the south-west- ern side of the trackway. Another exposure of burnt stone occurs on the north-western side of the trackway, at a point 30.6m NW of the north- western corner of the house. Here there is a small grassy mound (NW–SE 3.4m, NE–SW 2.5m; H c. 0.4m), the northern side of which has been dug into, revealing a mass of heat-fractured stone. A large boulder (0.5m × 0.7m) also protrudes from its south-western side. Just under 3m N of this mound is the southern end of a large curving earth and stone bank (W 3.3m × H 0.75m max.). This bank measures 15.3m along its curving length (chord 12.6m). At the foot of the slope at its southern end, a number of small heat-fractured stones are also visible protruding from the sod. While this arc of bank could conceivably be the remains of another fulacht fia, it could equally be the by-product of landscaping connected with the house and/or the trackway construction.

The above description is derived from: New Survey of Clare Island. Volume 5: Archaeology. Edited by Paul Gosling, Conleth Manning and John Waddell. (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. 2007). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated.

Date of upload: 29 November 2018

References

Gosling, P., Manning, C. and Waddell, J. (eds.) 2007 New Survey of Clare Island, Volume 5: Archaeology. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy.