Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight N-facing slope. Archaeological testing (E004781) by Y. Whitty 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 3by the same archaeologist (excavations.ie 2017:315).

A large mound of broken and burnt stone (dims 13m x 9m; max. T 0.6m) overlay a rectangular trough (dims 2.6m x 1.72m; D 0.27m) with straight sides and a flat bottom filled with seven layers of silty, sandy clay or marl, and some burnt stones. Just to the W was a large pit (dims 2.8m x 1.2m; D 0.1m) filled with a charcoal-flecked sandy silt. A short channel (L 5m; Wth 0.4m; D 0.3m) filled with a grey, charcoal-flecked silty clay was under the E edge of the mound, and two small pits (dims 1.3m x 1.1m; D 0.7m: 0.6m x 0.6m; D 0.07m) were cut through its NW edge, both with some burnt stone in the deposits. The mound was cut or truncated by two relict E-W drains, and what was known locally to have been a well with a stone structure before it had been removed by the landowner was at the wettest point in the vicinity where two of these drains met. A few possible struck flints were the only artefacts recovered, and a fragment of willow charcoal from the burnt mound provided a C14 date of 1106-906 cal. BC (UBA -37751). (Whitty and Kavanagh 2018, 13-18; Whitty and Kavanagh 2020, 9-15)

See the attached plan from Whitty and Kavanagh (2018, fig. 5)

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 Area 2 and Area 3 Unpublished report, IAC Archaeology