County: Limerick Site name: ROSSBRIEN (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0204
Author: Paul Stevens, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 557057m, N 655534m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.649311, -8.634605
A rescue excavation was carried out in March 2000 on a small site identified during monitoring of topsoil-stripping for the Limerick Main Drainage Southern Interceptor Scheme. The site is 2.5km south of Limerick city centre, 100m east of and within the flood-plain of the Ballinaclogh River, a tributary of the River Shannon.
The site was revealed as a small oval deposit of fire-cracked sandstone and charcoal-rich silt within a small ovoid hollow, in white and yellow glacial marl. The deposit measured 4.2m in length (south-east/north-west) by 1.8m and 0.15m in maximum depth, 2.659–2.542m OD. Excavation revealed no definitive cut, and the hollow had an irregular profile.
No other archaeological features were identified in the surrounding area, although the marshy flood-plain terrain is characteristic of the siting of fulachta fiadh. Analysis of charcoal extracted from samples taken from the deposit is still ongoing, and it is hoped to obtain a radiocarbon date for the site.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
