County: Dublin Site name: TYRRELSTOWN BIG
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0079
Author: Kieran Campbell
Site type: Fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 723924m, N 755721m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.536804, -6.130466
This site was discovered during construction of the B.G.E. Interconnector Gas Pipeline when topsoil stripping exposed a burnt stone spread measuring 21m x 28m and extending beyond the limit of the pipeline working width. The thickness of the surviving stone spread averaged 0.2m.
The trough, dug into glacial till, measured 2.6m x 1.8m at the surface and had a depth of 0.9m. The sides were steeply sloping becoming vertical towards the bottom of the trough. Removal of the fill of waterlogged burnt stone and charcoal-rich silt revealed a slot c. 0.12m wide and 0.05m deep around approximately half the perimeter of the trough bottom. Midway along one of the long sides of the trough was a posthole measuring 0.12m x 0.08m, with a depth of 0.08m. Through the floor of the trough on one side and also filled with burnt stone was a roughly circular pit 0.85m in diameter and 0.45m deep. Spring water coming through the sandy till floor settled at a depth of 0.2m in the empty trough, or 0.65m in the deeper pit.
An animal bone was recovered from among the burnt stone fill of the trough during excavation; a limpet shell was found in the spoil from the trough after excavation. A quartz hammerstone was later found in the surface stone spread.
6 St Ultans's, Laytown, Drogheda, for Margaret Gowen
