Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a hollow on a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological testing (03E1237) by D. Boner of Area 31 in advance of the N2 bypass of Ashbourne identified a trough and burnt mound material (Boner and Hackett 2003) which was excavated by C. Murray under the same licence (excavations.ie 2004:1247) in the confined area between a NE-SW field drain and bank at SE and the N-S boundary of the land-take at W. It consists of a subcircular trough (dims 1.15m NE-SW; 0.8m NW-SE; D 0.17m) which was filled with a charcoal-rich clay that contained burnt and broken stone. Just 2.6m to the SW was a mound (dims 2.1m N-S; 1.6m E-W; max. D 0.26m) of broken and burnt stone in a shallow cut that was truncated by a field drain at S but extended outside the road-take to the W. Detached spreads of burnt mound material lay 2.1m to the NE (dims 0.65m x 0.26m) and 3m NW (0.65m x 0.52m) of the trough, and post-medieval furrows run NW-SE through the earlier features. No artefacts were recovered, and no radiocarbon dates are available. (Murray 2008)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 21 December 2021

References

Murray, C. 2008 N2 Finglas – Ashbourne Road Scheme. Final Report on Archaeological Excavation of Site 31, Harlockstown, County Meath. Licence: 03E1237. Unpublished report, CRDS