County: Cork Site name: KILLEENS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0503
Author: Tim Coughlan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 563557m, N 575461m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.930073, -8.529895
The site was exposed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping along the route of a Bord Gáis Éireann pipeline that extended from Caherlag to Ballincollig, Co. Cork. The site was initially identified as a large spread of blackened and fire-shattered stone immediately beneath the topsoil. Preliminary investigations of the site appeared to confirm the location of a trough beneath the burnt spread. There had been no evidence of the site before the plant works.
The trough lay inside the southern boundary of the wayleave and took the form of a rectangular pit that was orientated north-south. The northern side of the pit had been removed by a relatively modern pit that appeared to have been dug by a mechanical digger. The trough pit would have had maximum dimensions of c. 3m by 1.8m and was 0.5m deep.
The trough was timber-lined. Only two small pieces of the side-walling survived. The first of these was at the south end where one small, badly decayed fragment of a vertical timber had collapsed slightly onto the floor of the trough. A similar, slightly larger piece of timber was found along the western edge. At the base of the trough were four relatively large planks that provided a floor to the trough. All four of these were orientated north-south. While the timbers were in fairly good condition, it was clear that they had badly decayed at the ends. The timber-lined trough would have measured c. 2.2m by 1.1m. The length of the trough has been estimated because of the disturbance at the northern end caused by the later pit. It was not clear from the evidence of the excavation to what height the walls of the trough would have stood.
Beneath and between the timbers at the base of the trough was a fine, grey sand. This appeared to have been a deliberately laid foundation for the timber floor. This deposit was a maximum of 0.01–0.02m thick. At the base of the trough, following the removal of the sand deposit, a cluster of four stake-holes became evident in the north-west corner. The stake-holes were in two sets of two and may have supported the vertical plank walls in this part of the trough.
Around the eastern edge of the trough was a roughly laid stone surface. The surface covered an area measuring 2.3m north-south by 1.3m east-west, but its northern extent had been cut by the later pit. The stones varied in size from 0.4m by 0.3m to just 0.06m by 0.04m. The stones were either loosely set into the underlying subsoil or just sitting directly on top of it.
There was no evidence of the hearth associated with this fulacht fiadh, and it must be assumed that this was removed by the later pit at the north of the trough.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
