County: Clare Site name: CRAGBRIEN (BGE 3/23/1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1025
Author: Graham Hull, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 530427m, N 668915m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.766793, -9.030928
This site was examined as part of Bord Gáis Éireann’s Pipeline to the West project. It lay on boggy, flattish ground, formerly used as pasture, and a raised hump in the field immediately adjacent to the gas pipeline easement appeared to be a fulacht fiadh. The broadly circular mound was c. 20m to the north-west of the site and measured c. 18m in diameter and c. 1m high.
Two features were excavated: a pit and a gully that were 1.22m apart at the closest point. Their fills were very similar, and it seems reasonable to assume that they were used at the same time.
The curvilinear gully (or perhaps beam-slot) was 2.5m long (north-north-west/south-south-east) and had a maximum width of 0.65m. The gully sides sloped gently at the top of the feature before forming a central U-shaped groove c. 0.2m wide. The fill of the gully was a dark grey/black fine silt with frequent burnt, fire-cracked and heat-reddened limestone inclusions. The stones typically had a diameter of 0.05m. Charcoal flecking was also noted in the fill.
The oval pit measured 1.9m (east–west) by 1.4m. It had steeply sloping sides that came down to a flat base 0.51m below the stripped ground surface. The pit fill was a very dark brown/black fine silt with frequent burnt, fire-cracked and heat-reddened limestone pieces. The stones had typical diameters of 0.05–0.1m but occasionally were as large as 0.2–0.25m.
It seems reasonable to interpret the pit as a trough or sump for the nearby fulacht fiadh. The curvilinear gully may have served as a beam-slot for a timber superstructure, perhaps a windbreak associated with the fulacht trough.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
