County: Limerick Site name: CLOGHACLOKA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0364
Author: Mary Deevy, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 553328m, N 650325m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.602182, -8.688979
The site was c. 8km south-west of Limerick City and 1km to the south of the N20. It was uncovered during archaeological monitoring of topsoil-stripping before road construction on the N20/N21 Adare to Annacotty road scheme. A rescue excavation was carried out over four weeks in July, during which four phases of activity were identified.
The earliest phase consisted of one large and two shallow pits, all filled with charcoal-rich soil and fragmented sandstone. The three pits were probably all troughs. Associated with the troughs were a number of very shallow pits or depressions filled with the same burnt material, some of which may have been hearths. Evidence for wooden structures was recovered in the form of stake-holes in the corners of the two shallow troughs and a short row of stake-holes nearby, which may have been a windbreak. No artefacts or animal bone were recovered from any of these features.
The second and third phases of activity were represented by three straight, linear ditches, which were relatively modern field drains. The fill of part of one of these ditches was composed of displaced burnt material, indicating that the earlier, Phase 1, features had been disturbed at some stage by land development. It may be that a shallow mound or spread of burnt material was originally present and that Phase 1 represents the basal remains of a badly truncated fulacht fiadh. Another phase of activity was represented by a series of furrows. These were later than Phase 1, but it was not possible to identify their chronological relationship with Phases 2 and 3.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
