Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a level landscape with a small canalised NW-SE watercourse just to the SW. Targeted archaeological testing (15E0109) by G. Hull (2015; excavations.ie 2015:420) on features highlighted in a gradiometer survey (15R0005) conducted by Shanarc (2015) identified two spreads of burnt mound material (excavations.ie 2015:420). This feature initially manifested as a deposit of broken and burnt stone in a pit (dims 1.5m x 1.3m; D 0.2m) that could have been a trough. It was subsequently completely excavated (15E0583) by P. Duffy as Site G (excavations.ie 2016:0050) when it proved to be a complex area with nine troughs that probably had three concentrated foci, but the burnt mound had been largely removed.
This entails nine troughs spread over a large area (diam. c. 40m), a large central well or water-hole, and some pits and post-holes. Some of the features were sealed by the remains of truncated spreads of burnt stone but few stratigraphic relationships could be established. Only two of the troughs were rectangular and the base of one of these retained traces of a timber lining. The remaining troughs were oval to circular in shape. Four of the troughs date to the Early Bronze Age and the remainder are from the Late Bronze Age.
The well (diam. 2.05-2.62m; D 0.74m) with vertical sides and a flat base is central to the excavated area but it was closed by the end of the Early Bronze Age and sealed with the largest of the three surviving patches of burnt mound material (dims 11m x 9.7m). An oval pit (dims 3.23m x 1.12m; max. D 0.35m) 8m E of the well provides a C14 date of 1681-1455 cal. BC, and a post-hole that cuts the fill of the well and produces a radiocarbon date of 1926-1746 cal. BC is also Middle Bronze Age in date. A line of stakeholes extending off to the N of the post-hole is probably contemporary as might a cluster of 15 stakeholes and two post-holes between the pit and the well, although neither stratigraphic nor dating material can confirm this.
A rectangular trough (dims 2.07m x 1.07m; max. D 0.41) from the SW extremity of the excavation had three fills with varying amounts of burnt stone and produced a C14 date of 2132-1921 cal. BC. Some nearby pits probably relate directly with it. At the centre of the area and c. 3m W of the well a circular trough (diam. 1.3-1.5m; max D 0.42) returned a radiocarbon date of 2136-1900 cal. BC from the basal fill. A circular trough (diam. 1.24-1.38m; max. D 0.53m) 2.5m to the NE has a C14 date of 2205-1983 cal. BC from its middle of three fills. These two troughs are contemporary, sharing the mound in the immediate vicinity. The fourth early trough is circular (diam. 1.75m; max. D 0.5m) and located c. 2m S of the well. Its basal fill returned a C14 date of 2345-2059 cal. BC.
At the N extremity of the excavated area a rectangular trough (dims 2.1m x 0.72-0.8m; D 0.24-0.36m) with straight sides has traces of four timbers at its base. Two of the timbers were split oak, and the single fill of grey/black silty clay and burnt stones returned a radiocarbon date of 1112-932 cal. BC. A circular trough (diam. 1.27-1.48; D 0.38), a figure-of-eight trough (max. dims 2.61m x 1.56m; max. D 0.7m), an oval trough (dims 1.67m x 1.49m; D 0.38m), and an irregularly-shaped one (dims 2.5m x 1.2m; D 0.22m) and their associated pits and stakeholes produced no artefacts or dating material but probably belong to the later rather than the earlier period of use. A fire-pit (diam. 0.85m; D 0.43m) with steep sides and a slightly concave base has a single fill of scorched clay with lumps of iron ore, indicating a continued presence here into the Iron Age, although the ore was bog iron and insufficiently heated for smelting. (Duffy and Coughlan 2019, 7-22)

See the attached plans from Duffy and Coughlan 2019, figs 4,

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 8 November 2021

References

Shanarc 2015 Magnetometer Survey of 92ha development site, Clonee, Co. Meath. Licence: 15R0005. Unpublished report, Shanarc Archaeology

Duffy, P. & Coughlan, J. 2019 Final Excavation Report for Sites G & H, Clonee Data Centre, Clonee, Co. Meath. Licence: 15E0583. Unpublished report, IAC Archaeology

Hull, G. 2015 An archaeological testing and metal detection report at Portan, Clonee, Co. Meath. Licences: 15E0109; 15R0028. Unpublished report, TVAS