Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a fairly level landscape with a canalised ESE-WNW section of the River Skane c. 10m to the N. Archaeological testing (04E1499) by R. Tobin on the line of a sewer pipe identified an area of broken and burnt stones (excavations.ie 2004:1236), which was subsequently excavated (05E0429) within the wayleave by S. Conran (excavations.ie 2005:1263). A large mound of broken and burnt stone in a charcoal-enriched matrix (dims 9m E-W; 7m N-S; max. T 0.38m) was uncovered over a natural soil of light grey compact clay that slopes down steeply to the N, but much of the mound extends outside the N limit of the excavation. A rectangular, wood-lined trough (dims 2m NW-SE; 1.18m NE-SW; max. D 0.3m) with a stakehole in each corner was uncovered c. 2m S of the densest part of the mound. Three wooden planks were present, one in situ on the base against the SE edge of the trough, and wood lining the sides was represented by staining. A sample of birch charcoal from the primary fill of loose sandy silt, charcoal and heat-shattered stone in the trough produced a C14 date of 1260-1000 cal. BC. This fill had some animal bones which were partly charred, but the secondary fill was a light grey silt mottled with some yellow flecks, and marks the abandonment of the monument. A sample of alder charcoal from the mound has a C14 date of 1200-970 cal. BC. No artefacts were recovered, but the mound survives outside the excavated area to the N. (Fallon 2010)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 26 February 2021

References

Fallon, D. 2010 Final Report on Archaeological Excavation at Warrenstown. Licence: 05E0429. Unpublished report, CRDS