1997:504 - DER253, DERRYVILLE BOG, Killoran, Tipperary

The most northerly site excavated, another fulacht fiadh (DER253), was 100m north of DER265 (Excavations 1997, No. 503). The mound material covered an area of 5.5m (north–south) by 6.5m (east–west) and consisted of heat-shattered sandstone (90%) and limestone (10%) in a charcoal-rich loamy clay matrix. The eastern limit of the mound had been disturbed by a Bord na Móna drain. The highest part of the mound was no more than 0.5m above the level at which it had begun to be deposited. The northern edge of the mound had spilled over into the trough and, to the east of that, a stone and timber platform. A number of stakes preserved below the mound did not form any coherent pattern, but the lack of evidence for stake-holes through the mound material would appear to indicate that their presence is associated with the beginnings or construction of the site and apparently not its use.

Sealed below the north-eastern corner of the mound was a stone platform which extended for 5m (north–south) by 2.3m (east–west), consisting of irregular boulders and cobbles of sandstone and, occasionally, limestone. At the time of construction, or perhaps later in the life of the site, timber was added, mostly wood derived from the marginal forest, alder, hazel, birch and willow. Some of this timber had been felled or branch-trimmed, but a number of timbers may be simply dead wood which happened to fall in the area of the platform. Where the mound met the platform, there was a 0.4m-wide setting of stones containing a 0.15m-deep deposit of charcoal which appears to represent a hearth. This was constructed directly on the stones of the platform. The peat directly below these stones was severely compressed and dried out.

To the west of the platform, and north of the mound, a wicker-lined trough was identified. Cut through peat to the subsoil, the original dimensions of the trough must have been around 1.8m by 1.1m by 0.6m deep. The weight of the peat on three sides of the trough had led to the collapse of the sides, and only on the southern portion, below the mound, were the original sides intact. The base of the trough had been lined with straight rods, laid transversely. The shorter north side and the northern three-quarters of the longer eastern and western sides survived as piles of wicker wands inside the line of where the trough walls had been. On the southern side an in–out weave around double sails could be identified, with the pattern appearing to continue along the longer sides. The ends of wands were thrust another 100mm into the peat in the corners, giving the lining some extra stability. Moss had also been used to plug the sides, and this, along with the presence of an amount of silt in the base of the trough, points to an attempt to build it so that it would fill with fresh ground-water rather than acidic bog water. A date of 1305–940 cal. BC (Beta-111378) was obtained for timbers removed from the trough.

Minorco Lisheen Ltd, Killoran, Moyne, Co. Tipperary