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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Fulacht fia

Harlockstown, County Meath, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Fulacht fia, Harlockstown, County Meath, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Harlockstown
County
Meath
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
53.49647, -6.41652
SMR number
ME045-035----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a level landscape with a small canalised W-E stream that flows into the Broad Meadow River at Donaghmore c. 3km to the E just to the S. Archaeological deposits, later designated as Site 20, were initially identified by D. Bonner in archaeological testing (03E1310) in advance of the N2 Finglas – Ashbourne road and by-pass. The material was subsequently excavated within the road-take by C. Murray under the same licence (excavations.ie 2004:1248). An irregularly shaped homogenous spread of broken and burnt stone (max. dims 19.3m N-S; 9.7m E-W; T 0.03-0.23m) overlaid four troughs, two of which were partially lined with alder. At the S end an oval trough (dims 1.37m x 0.9m; max. D 0.29m) with the remnants of four wooden planks in the base was filled with a black clayey silt, decayed stones and charcoal. A second oval trough (dims 1.35m NE-SW; 1.09m NW-SE; max. D 0.28m) just to the S partly truncated the lower trough. This trough was filled with a deposit of stone that was probably the last use of the fulacht fia. At the N of the area two troughs were 0.8m apart. An oval trough (dims 1.05m x 0.51m plus; D 0.22m) was only partially excavated and has a charcoal-rich clayey silt at the bottom beneath a silty clay. Just 0.8m to the NE an oval trough (dims 1.3m NE-SW; 1m NW-SE; D 0.23m) had five planks of alder in its base beneath a fill of black clayey silt with decayed stone and charcoal. Only one artefact was recovered, a small side-scraper, from the covering mound. Samples from the basal fills of two of the troughs produced C14 determinations of 2290-1970 cal. BC and 2300-2050 cal. BC. (Murray and O’Carroll 2008)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 20 December 2021

References

Murray, C. and F. O’Carroll 2008 Report on Archaeological Excavation of Site 20, Harlockstown, County Meath. Licence: 03E1310. Final unpublished report, CRDS

Bonner, D. 2004 N2 Finglas – Ashbourne Road Scheme. Archaeological Services, Testing Area 20, Report on Archaeological Test Excavation Report, Site 20. Harlockstown. Licence: 03E1310. Unpublished report, CRDS

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Fulacht fia in Meath All County Meath records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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