County: Mayo Site name: COOLROE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0389
Author: Richard Gillespie
Site type: Fulachta fia
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 533124m, N 771250m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.686685, -9.012440
This site was identified by Gerry Walsh during the site assessment of the main treatment works for the Claremorris Sewerage Scheme. Three adjacent fulachta fiadh were fully excavated. Each consisted of a mound of burnt stone in a matrix of charcoal-rich clay, with one or more troughs cut into the subsoil. Associated finds included cut wooden stakes, several struck flakes of chert, one flint scraper and some antler and bone.
The first to be excavated was discovered while digging a drain to the east of Site 5 (a fulacht identified during the original site assessment, see Excavations 1998). It consisted of a mound of heat-fractured stone in a matrix of charcoal-stained, black, silty clay. It was roughly oval in plan, measuring 19m x 9m, reaching a maximum thickness of 0.6m. The main features were a rectangular trough measuring 1.9m x 1.3 and 0.2m deep and a pit/trough roughly circular in plan with a diameter of 0.9–0.95m and a depth of 0.26m. Another, less definite rectangular trough was also identified.
Several wooden stakes were recovered from the vicinity of the site but did not appear to form any part of a regular feature or structure. Small finds included one flint end-scraper and several flakes of struck chert, including a number of chert blades. Some bone and fragments of at least two antlers and a poorly preserved skull with antlers still attached were recovered adjacent to the mound.
The second to be excavated was Site 5. The mound had a horseshoe-shaped plan above the surface but was oval at its base, measuring 12m north-south x 17m and 0.7m in maximum thickness. Two troughs occurred below the mound.
The central trough measured 3.5m x 2.3m and was 0.1m deep. It had an almost circular recut to the south-east, with a diameter of 1.6m, and had a maximum depth of 0.3m. The recut had been dug down as far as a natural layer of marl in the subsoil. At this level several stakes were visible at or near the sides of the trough. There were about 34 stakes, some surviving as small fragments and others as long as 0.4m, with cut ends. The second trough was almost square in plan with sides 1.6m long and a depth of 0.2m. Other features include a posthole, a drain and some hollows.
Small finds from this site include some struck chert flakes, antler fragments and some worked wood.
The third fulacht was discovered during soil-stripping of the surrounding area, 3m east of Site 5. The mound was roughly horseshoe-shaped, measured 11.2m east-west x 7m and was 0.3m in maximum thickness. The trough was to the south of the mound within the horseshoe. It measured 1.6m north-south x 0.95m and was 0.2m deep. Finds included one struck chert waste flake, some bone and one piece of worked wood. A cut through the north-west quarter of the site probably represents a later drain, and a hollow filled with mound material and redeposited natural to the west of it may also represent later disturbance.
Moneen Roundabout, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
