County: Wicklow Site name: KILTIMON
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0972
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 708127m, N 702133m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.058886, -6.386912
As part of the mitigation strategy developed for the sites identified during the environmental impact assessment for the proposed new N11 road scheme in County Wicklow, certain sections of the route were re-walked as part of a reassessment survey. A number of new sites were discovered, the locations of which were on the projected road line and therefore under threat from the development. Many of these sites were only tentatively identified from the field observations and it was proposed that a series of follow-up test excavations should take place to ascertain the nature, date and extent of any archaeology associated with these sites.
The site consisted of an area of damp ground in a hollow immediately to the east of the present N11 road line. The area was identified as a prime candidate for the location of fulachta fiadh, and indeed the topsoil monitoring uncovered an area of burnt stone and charcoal-flecked soil, indicative of a burnt mound. However, the site was very badly truncated and survived at best as a roughly circular spread, 10m in diameter and apparently no deeper than 0.1m. The spread lay on an area of weathered bedrock and there did not seem to be any evidence for the presence of an associated trough. Further investigative work was proposed for this site.
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