Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a level landscape c. 10m W of a canalised S-N section of the River Skane at a point where two drainage ditches join it approaching from the NW and SW with the monument in the angle between these drains. Archaeological testing (04E1499) by R. Tobin on the line of a sewer-pipe identified a spread of burnt mound material, which was subsequently excavated (05E0022) by the same archaeologist. A substantial mound (diam. 5.34-6m; max. H 0.38m) of broken and burnt stone in a black matrix was truncated by the field drain at NE. It was situated on a rise of peat (dims 6m NW-SE; 4m NE-SW; max. H 0.45m). The burnt mound was retained by a line of three large stones (L 1.36m; H 0.14m) at its SE edge. These kept the burnt stone from spilling into the straight-sided and flat-bottomed trough (diam. 1.4-1.5m; max. D 0.5m) which was 1m outside the mound. It had three fills of varying amounts of silt, clay and burnt stones, and a second irregular pit (dims 2.2m plus x 1.17m; max. D 0.36m) beneath the mound that was filled with coarse sand and silty clays was also truncated by the drainage ditch at NE. Three smaller spreads (diam. 1m; T 0.1m) of broken and burnt stone material were probably detached from the main mound. No artefacts were recovered. A sample from the primary fill of the trough produced a C14 date of 2130-1900 cal. BC, while a sample of charred oak from the pit has a C14 date of 2120-1890 cal. BC. A sample of hazel charcoal from the mound has a C14 date of 2200-1960 cal. BC demonstrating that the fulacht fia had a confined period of use. (Tobin 2010, 6-10)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload; 26 February 2021

References

Tobin, R. 2010 Final Report on Archaeological Excavation at Balgeeth, Co. Meath. Licence: 05E0022. Unpublished report, CRDS