Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a hollow in a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological testing (E004781) of an area required for the construction phase of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway in November 2016 (Whitty and Coughlan 2017) identified archaeological features (excavationis.ie 2017:167) which were fully excavated (E005033) in January 2019 as a part of Ballycarrigeen 11, Area 4 when it proved to be two fulachta fia (excavations.ie 2019:319).
This feature comprises a horseshoe-shaped burnt mound (dims 8.7m x 5.35m; T 0.2m) surrounding a circular trough (diam. 1.43m x 1.4m; D 0.44m) on its W and N. The trough is filled with four layers of silty clay with charcoal and some burnt stone and there is a patch of orange clay (dims 1.3m x 0.6m) 0.5m to the NE, which is interpreted as a hearth. There is an oval pit (dims 0.64m x 0.45m; D 0.17m) 2.8m to the NW of the trough beneath the mound which is filled with the mound material. Two smaller spreads of burnt mound material (dims 1.78m x 1.04m; T 0.11m: 1.96m x 0.88m; T 0.06m) are detached from the mound and c. 1-2m E and SE of the trough. No artefacts were recovered and the mound was cut by a later NNE-SSW drain at NW and disturbed by furrows. (Kavanagh 2019, 9-11)

See the attached plan from Kavanagh and Vleeshouver 2020, Fig. 4

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 19 November 2020
Amended: 8 November 2020

References

Whitty, Y. and Coughlan, T. 2017 Archaeological Assessment of Proposed Permanent Fill Area 5. Corbally M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Scheme. Licence No.: E004811. Unpublished report, IAC Archaeology

Kavanagh, L. 2019 Preliminary stratigraphic report & post-excavation design for Ballycarrigeen Lower. 11 AA1 and 4, Co. Wexford. M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Scheme. Licence: E005033. Unpublished report, IAC Archaeology

Kavanagh, L. & F. Vleeshouver 2020 Final Excavation Report for Area 1 & 4, Ballycarrigeen Lower 11, Co. Wexford. M 11 Gorey to Enniscorthy Scheme. Licence: E005033. Unpublished report, IAC