County: Louth Site name: HARRISTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0498
Author: Carmel Duffy, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 699948m, N 790985m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.858692, -6.480642
Monitoring on the Ardee Link Road led to discovery of the site. It was excavated over twelve weeks from September to November 1999. The site was fully excavated within the take of the road, but part of the archaeological deposit ran off the road.
The burnt stone deposit was up to 25m long, 10m wide and 1.5m deep. A trough and hearth were excavated on the highest part of the site, close to the north edge of the road-take. A charcoal sample recovered from the hearth has been sent for dating.
Two curvilinear ditches were cut into the burnt stone mound on the southern edge of the site, and some stretches cut into the underlying subsoil. These features contained substantial quantities of metal slag, which were also present in the main part of the burnt mound.
Numerous flints, several sherds of Bronze Age pottery and a part-polished stone macehead were recovered from the fulacht fiadh material.
Interpretation is incomplete pending expert reports, carbon dating and placing the site in a broader context with the numerous other sites discovered during construction of the Ardee Link Road.
The Mill Road, Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath
