County: Wicklow Site name: BALLYHENRY: N11, Wicklow ByPass Road Scheme
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0655
Author: Ciara McManus, ADS
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 727304m, N 698958m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.026151, -6.102236
Excavations of a fulacht fiadh commenced on 30 August 2001 and continued over a period of two weeks. The site, which had initially been identified in an earlier field-walking survey, survived as a low mound c. 7m in diameter c. 0.5km to the north of Ashford village, Co. Wicklow. Approximately half of the mound was within the line of the proposed realignment, thus requiring excavation, while the eastern portion of the site was bounded by the present-day field boundary.
A trench covering the portion of the mound between the field boundary and the line of the road was opened up and stripped of topsoil. This revealed the full extent of the mound to be 11.5m along the length of the site. The mound material survived as a dark grey to black friable silt that was moderately charcoal-flecked and contained numerous small heat-shattered stones; excavation of this material revealed a maximum height of only 0.25m.
Beneath the mound the remains of two possible troughs were uncovered. Trough 1, orientated south-east/north-west, was 1.5m wide and at least 2m long, extending into the western baulk of the site, alongside the field boundary. Within the four corners of the trough were a number of stake-holes—two in the north-east corner, two in the south-west, and one each in the opposing two corners. A secondary trough was then cut into the south-western edge of the first. This later feature also extended into the field boundary, although it was aligned along a more north–south orientation. It was slightly larger than the first trough, being 1.75m wide, and more subrectangular in shape.
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