Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated towards the bottom of an E-facing slope in a low-lying landscape between drumlins. An archaeological excavation (05E0783) carried out as part of the N2 Castleblayney to Clontibret road realignment scheme at a site known as Grig 2 uncovered the remains of three possible cooking troughs. The pits were shallow but they contained concentrations of burnt material. A sample of charcoal from one (dims 1.5m x 1.5m; D 0.3m) of the two closely placed pits produced a C14 date of 1130+- 30 BP, which provides a calibrated date of AD 780-990. A sample from another pit (MO019-049001-), located c. 15m to the NW, produced a date in the Early Bronze Age.
It is probable that two fulachta fia, widely separated in time, are involved, each being paired with a trough of the same time period from the two fulachta fia (MO019-050----; MO019-050001-) that are located c. 130m to the S. (Halpin B. 2008; 2010, 6, 11, XII).

Revised by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 22 June 2018

References

Halpin B. 2008, Grig 2 Circular burnt spread/possible kiln. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2005: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 312 (No. 1270). Bray. Wordwell

Halpin, B. 2010: Archaeological Excavation of Development at N2 Clontibret to Castleblayney Road Realignment, Licence No. 05E0783; Site name Grig 2. Unpublished Final Report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy