1997:339 - DOORADOYLE, Limerick

The site is situated in a now-disused playing field along the line of the Adare–Annacotty road improvement scheme. It lies c. 290m south-east of the Limerick–Tralee railway line, bounded to the west by the Ballnaclogh River and to the east by the Old Crescent Rugby Football Club.

During monitoring of topsoil-stripping by Audrey Gahan (see Excavations 1997, No. 338), archaeological material suggestive of an ancient cooking place or fulacht fiadh was uncovered. As the site had been used as a rugby pitch, it had been scarped and levelled. As a result the archaeological deposits had been severely truncated and compressed. Excavation located a burnt mound, in the form of two kidney-shaped ‘arms’ oriented roughly north–south. The western ‘arm’ measured 14.5m x 7m x 0.15m deep and was composed of blackened and heat-shattered stone. The eastern ‘arm’ measured 22.5m x 9m x 0.5m deep, the stone having been compressed into the underlying soft natural clay. This was composed of heat-shattered, blackened stone and red burnt stony soil.

The ‘arms’ enclosed a central clay-lined trough, 2.58m x 2m x 0.54m, cutting through the subsoil. There was a shallower ‘basin’-type feature located along the western edge of the trough. A second subsoil-cut trough was located to the east of the burnt mound, measuring 1.96m x 1.42m x 0.36m. This pit had not been lined though there was a small posthole in each corner, suggesting that they had held a small wooden frame, probably a spit. There was a cluster of stake-holes around the eastern edge of this trough and, though their function is unclear—they possibly held a windbreak—they undoubtedly have an association with the process of cooking. Both troughs were subrectangular in shape and filled with a black, greasy clay, packed with blackened and heat-shattered stone.

Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3