County: Clare Site name: CARROWKILLA (BGE 3/29/1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1028
Author: Emer Dennehy, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 527168m, N 663871m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.721043, -9.078094
The site was exposed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping along Section 3 of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West, from Goatisland, Co. Limerick, to Gort, Co. Galway. The site, which measured 19m north-east/south-west by 13.5m, was on a south-west-sloping plain of pastureland on the outskirts of Ballynacally village, 275m north of Kilchreest Church (SMR 50:35(01, 02)). Five phases of activity were identified, focused on the alternate use and abandonment of six intercut troughs and two pot-boilers, in conjunction with a number of pits and stake-holes.
The troughs varied in size from a minimum of 0.8m by 0.7m by 0.2m to a maximum of 4.45m by 1.5m by 0.36m. All of the features excavated were filled with burnt sandstone and limestone in a charcoal-enriched matrix. Only two of the troughs retained water. An interesting characteristic of these troughs is that they were either excavated into the underlying slate bedrock or cut into the clay subsoil and lined with fractured bedrock. This may have been the result of a deliberate effort to increase the efficiency of the troughs in sustaining a constant heat source for a prolonged period of time. No direct information about the function of these troughs was retrieved, but it is assumed that they were either for the roasting of food or, more probably, for textile use or the preservation of food through steaming. The latter two interpretations are supported by the presence of a 3m double arc of stakes, which probably functioned as drying racks.
There is no mound associated with this site within the Bord Gáis wayleave, and therefore it cannot be interpreted as a fulacht fiadh. It may be that the site was of similar construction to that excavated in Robertstown, Co. Limerick (BGE 3/47/2; 02E0670, No. 1252, Excavations 2002). At that site the roasting pits were separated from the debris mound by a trackway, with the mound 15m from the pits. As no fire site was identified at Carrowkilla, it is probable that an associated mound would be identified outside the limits of the Bord Gáis wayleave.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
