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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Fulacht fia

Castlegowan, County Sligo, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Fulacht fia, Castlegowan, County Sligo, 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
Castlegowan
County
Sligo
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
54.41042, -8.44711
SMR number
SL005-199----

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 1869 map "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 4. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1922 · Ireland - northern section. (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

In an E–W field ditch on the N boundary of a pasture field in an area of undulating boggy terrain. Ground rises gently for 50m to S where a cashel (SL005-016----) is sited on the crest of the elevation.
This fulacht fia is not visible at surface ground level. It has been bisected by an E–W field ditch (Wth 2m at top, 0.5-0.6m at base; D 1.4-1.5m). The mound (L 9m E–W; H 1.4m) is clearly visible in both section faces as a gently domed, dense concentration of angular, heat-shattered stone fragments in black charcoal-rich soil. The top of the mound underlies a layer (D 0.3-0.4m) of peat and sod, and the mound extends to the full depth of the field drain. A piece of timber protrudes slightly from the E edge of the mound at the base of the field ditch in the S section face, but it is impossible to determine if this is related structurally in any way to the fulacht fia. To the N of the field ditch there is an area of rough boggy, scrub-covered ground, and here the field ditch is bordered by heaps of field clearance debris, and soil upcast from the digging of the ditch. These heaps are now largely scrub-covered, but displaced burnt mound material is visible in parts, and two timber planks -possibly originally derived from a trough -protrude from one of the spoil heaps.

Notified to NMS by Leo Leydon.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 29 May 2019

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
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