County: Sligo Site name: MAGHERABOY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0833
Author: Mary Henry, Mary Henry Archaeological Services Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 568035m, N 835591m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.268134, -8.490695
In the course of monitoring of ground disturbance on the Caltragh Sewerage Scheme, Sligo, a previously unrecorded monument, a possible fulacht fiadh, was uncovered. Groundworks ceased in the area to facilitate a rescue excavation.
It was necessary to excavate the part of the monument that was directly affected by the pipe-laying scheme, with the remainder being preserved in situ outside the pipeline route. An area measuring 17.1m by 4–4.6m was cordoned off to facilitate the excavation.
There was no trace of the monument surviving above ground level. It had been levelled and was only identifiable by the presence of a spread of charred soil intermixed with burnt and heat-shattered pieces of sandstone. The first traces of burnt spread occurred below the topsoil at a depth of 0.38m below the ground surface.
Only a few of the characteristic features of a fulacht fiadh were evident in the excavated monument. There was no trace of a mound on the ground surface, and there was no evidence for a trough, wooden or otherwise, or a designated hearth within the confines of the excavated trench. It is possible that the hearth and trough survive outside the pipeline route. Regarding the surviving features of the monument, a high density of burnt and heat-shattered stones and charcoal survived. The stones were of sandstone, although the nearest known source of sandstone is several miles away. No artefacts or traces of food remains were found in the burnt spread. The burnt spread measured 12.5m in length, had a maximum width of 3.9m and ranged in thickness from 0.12m to 0.24m. It consisted of a mixture of heat-shattered stone, sand, the residual from the heating of the sandstone, charcoal and blackened soil. The stones ranged in size from 20mm to 100mm.
The topographical setting—at the base of a shallow valley, low-lying, marshy and in very close proximity to a stream—and the fact that a number of similar monument types survive in the vicinity, suggested it was likely that the burnt spread was the remains of a former fulacht fiadh.
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