Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Located in a level landscape on the NW bank of a canalised SW-NE section of the River Skane. Archaeological testing (04E1499) by R. Tobin on the line of a sewer-pipe identified three potential archaeological locations in Ballinter. This site is designated Ballinter 1 and was subsequently excavated (04E1462) by D. Fallon when it proved to be a spread of broken and burnt stone (dims 4.5m x 3m; max. D 0.14m) sealed by two layers of brown clays and organic silts from a shallow subrectangular trough (dims 1.5m x 0.7m; max. D 0.24m). This was just S of the burnt mound material and was filled with a dark brown organic silt with wood and charcoal inclusions. The only wood identified was blackberry/raspberry, but a sample of charcoal yielded a C14 date of 2870-2570 cal. BC. A sample of hazel charcoal from the mound yielded a C14 date of 1770-1620 cal. BC. Just SE of the trough was a thin spread (dims 2m x 0.85m) of ash on the fire-reddened subsoil. Two pieces of wood c. 3m E of the burnt mound and resting on the subsoil were separated by a brown organic sandy clay from a lens of ash and charcoal (dims 1.75m x 1.5m). (Fallon 2010, 10-12)

References

Fallon, D. 2010 Final Report on Archaeological Excavation, Ballinter 1-3. Licence: 04E1462. Unpublished report, CRDS