County: Waterford Site name: GRAIGUESHONEEN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0199
Author: Michael Tierney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 638659m, N 605492m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.199857, -7.434459
This site was in the fifth field to be investigated as part of excavations on the N25 realignment at Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford. It was one of eight fulachta fiadh situated on the road-take and was c. 400m east of the fulacht fiadh nearest to it, excavated by John Tierney (see Excavations 2000, No. 977, Area 30). The site lay on fairly flat and even ground. It was c. 24m long (north–south) and 20m wide and consisted predominantly of the remains of the burnt mound or fulacht fiadh, which was c. 15m long (north–south) and 13m wide. The spread of burnt stones, soil and charcoal covered seven cuts, either troughs or pits. It also covered a group of stake-holes towards the centre of the site and what appears to be a double, curved row of stake-holes in the north-east corner of the site.
The uppermost layers of the mound had been severely disturbed and mixed by post-medieval agricultural activity. The mound appeared to be approximately horseshoe-shaped, with the open end to the south-east. Most of the stones in the deposits were burnt and shattered pebbles and/or small to medium-sized stones. Most of the deposits also contained charcoal flecks in varying degrees of frequency.
The seven pits/troughs varied in size from 0.9m long and 0.7m wide to 2.12m long and 1.7m wide. The deepest trough was 0.36m deep; all the others were c. 0.3m deep. The shapes of the cuts varied considerably from subcircular or subrectangular to oval or irregular. One subrectangular trough had one circular stake-hole in three of its four corners and an elongated oval cut in the fourth corner.
Old Parish, Co. Waterford
