1998:482 - CLARE, Mayo

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Mayo Site name: CLARE

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0412

Author: Suzanne Zajac

Site type: Fulacht fia

Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)

ITM: E 534597m, N 774891m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.719591, -8.990909

A rescue excavation was carried out when a fulacht fiadh was revealed during topsoil removal for the Knock/Claremorris Bypass. The site lies on the outer edges of a tract of bogland, south-east of Claremorris town.

Already disturbed by land reclamation, it was seen directly below the sod as a level spread of burnt and heat-fractured stone covering an area of 8.2m north-south by 11.3m. A cutting placed centrally through the burnt material revealed a sub-oval, wooden trough, aligned north-south and held in place at each end by a series of short stakes hammered into the underlying boulder clay. A narrow wooden causeway facilitated access to the trough, extending from its southern extremity for a distance of 3m. The causeway was composed largely of a single felled tree. Both the trough and the causeway had been set into boulder clay.

A further deposit of wood, consisting of individual branches and brushwood, was noted adjacent to the west of the causeway and seemed to be contemporary with it. The branch and brushwood layer was randomly placed and would have provided a suitable working surface in an otherwise wet, low-lying area.

Post-dating these features and lying diagonally across the causeway 0.3m above it was a subrectangular wooden platform 1.2m long and 0.7m wide. It consisted of six split, branch-trimmed timbers, laid down to form the base of the platform, with a shorter closing timber at each end.

A multi-platform chert core was found amongst a concentrated deposit of hazelnut shells, animal bone and charcoal. This was the only artefact uncovered. More information concerning activities on the site as well as their time-frame will be revealed with the results of analysis of the wood and environmental samples.

1 Chapel Lane, Killala, Co. Mayo