Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Excavated by Ruairí Ó Baoill and Yvonne McQuaid under licence no. 02E0605.
As part of continuing investigations along the proposed route of the N11 Newtownmountkennedy– Ballynabarny Road Scheme, testing at Kiltimon, Co. Wicklow, was carried out by Eoin Halpin in October 2001 (Excavations 2001, No. 1374, 01E0972). The investigation uncovered a small mound of charcoal-rich soil and burnt stone, 10m in diameter and c. 0.2m high, identifying the site as a probable fulacht fiadh. As the site lay directly in the line of the proposed N11 Improvement Scheme, full excavation was necessary before construction. Complete excavation of the site was carried out from 8 to 28 May 2002. Investigations confirmed the site to be a fulacht fiadh. A stone hearth and cooking platform were uncovered beneath the layers of burnt stone related to the activity carried out at the site, but no cooking trough was found within the site limits. A series of post-holes, some containing in situ timbers, attested to other activities on the site. However, no artefacts were uncovered from the excavation to help determine the period of its usage (Bennett 2004, 537).

Date of upload: 01 October 2012

References

Bennett, I. (ed.) 2004 Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland. Bray. Wordwell.