County: Wicklow Site name: KILLOUGHTER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0824
Author: Ian W. Doyle for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 729129m, N 699037m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.026423, -6.075006
A small pit or fulacht fiadh-type feature was excavated in the townland of Killoughter, Co. Wicklow, in May 2001. The site was detected during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping for the Hollybrook–Wicklow Bord Gáis Éireann pipeline.
The Killoughter excavation was located approximately 2.5km north-east of Ashford and some 2km inland from the Wicklow coastline. The site, in present-day terms, is within a tract of land bounded on the west by the N11 and on the east by the Rathnew–Newcastle R761 regional road.
Topsoil-stripping revealed a small spread of heat-shattered stone at the western limit of the pipeline corridor. Hand-cleaning of this revealed it to be a small shallow pit. Excavation revealed a small oval pit, which measured 0.86m north–south by 1.08m. The cut possessed gently sloping sides and a flat base with a depth of 0.22m. It was cut into natural subsoil. The fill consisted of a moderately compact greyish-black sandy clay with inclusions of frequent medium-sized stones, which were a mix of mainly heat-shattered granite and sandstone.
No additional archaeological features were noted in the immediate area. Conversations with the landowner confirmed the impression that the excavated material at Killoughter was merely an outlying element of a larger fulacht fiadh. According to the landowner, several spreads of burnt material were present in the field immediately to the west of the excavated feature. At the time of pipeline construction this field was under pasture.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
