Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight N-facing slope. Archaeological testing (E004781) of an area required for the construction phase of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway in November 2016 identified archaeological features (excavationis.ie 2017:167) which were fully excavated (E004856) in April 2017 as Ballycarrigeen Lower 11, Area 2 (excavations.ie 2017:315).
A rectangular trough (dims 1.8m x 1.5m; D 0.4m) with rounded corners, straight sides and a flat base, and a subcircular, straight-sided trough (dims 1.8m x 1.3m; D 0.3-0.4m) just to its N were both lined with a dark grey clay and were filled with similar layers of grey clay with stones and a black silty layer with heat-shattered stones. Both troughs were cut by an E-W pit (L 2.2m; Wth 0.5m; D 0.25m) and all three features were cut by a N-S drain so the relationships between them could not be established. A large shallow cut (dims 5.2m NE-SW; 1.85m NW-SE; D 0.2m) filled with a grey sand and burnt stones beneath a brown, charcoal-flecked sand was just to the SE of the troughs, and a small subrectangular pit (dims 0.6m x 0.6m; D 0.13m) filled with black sand was inserted in its NE end. Just NE of the troughs was a pit (dims 2m x 1.3m; D 0.3m) with three deposits that was re-cut (dims 1.5m x 0.6m; D 0.2m) once and the re-cut was filled with black sand and burnt stone. Just W of the troughs was a channel (dims 5m N-S; 0.55m; D 0.17m) with four fills including burnt mound material. These features were just S of five spreads of burnt mound material (max. dims 2.8m N-S; 2m E-W; D 0.2m) interleaved with gravels. No artefacts were recovered but a sample of hazel charcoal from the subcircular trough provided a C14 date of 2286-2034 cal. BC (UBA – 37749). (Whitty and Kavanagh 2018, 9-13; Whitty and Kavanagh 2020, 5-9)

See the attached plan from Whitty and Kavanagh (2018, fig. 4)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload; 24 November 2020

References

Whitty, Y. and Kavanagh, L. 2018 Preliminary Stratigraphic Report & Project Design for Ballycarrigeen Lower 11, Co. Wexford. Licence: E004856. Area 2 and Area 3 Unpublished report, IAC Archaeology