County: Clare Site name: LISHEEN (BGE 3/24/4)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1226
Author: Graham Hull, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burnt spread and Pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 529838m, N 668314m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.761317, -9.039523
This site was examined as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project. A burnt spread, two troughs and two pits were examined. The cut features were sealed by a spread of burnt stone measuring at least 15.6m (south-west/north-east) by 14.4m by 0.25m thick. The spread lay on flat ground, formerly used as pasture, with a steep scarp 300m to the north. The adjacent fields were poorly drained and boggy. A small rectified stream was observed immediately to the east of the site.
One trough was subrectangular, measuring 2.35m (east–west) by 1.53m by 0.16m deep. The trough sides were steep, and the base was flat. The fill was dark grey/black limestone and sandstone pieces with occasional charcoal flecking.
The second trough, which cut the first at the north, was oval and measured 4.1m (north–south) by 1.3m by 0.5m deep. The trough sides were steeply inclined on the long axis and shallowly inclined at the two ends. Two fills were recorded. The primary fill, 0.09m thick, was a pale orange and grey silt with occasional burnt stone pieces. This fill is likely to have originated from natural silting while the trough was open. The secondary fill, 0.42m thick, was a dark grey/black mixture of burnt and unburnt limestone and burnt sandstone pieces with some charcoal flecking.
Two large pits were found at the western part of the site. The first was approximately circular, with a diameter of 2.05m, and was 0.57m deep. The sides of the pit sloped gradually to a concave base. Three pit fills were recognised, with a high proportion of burnt limestone pieces and charcoal.
The second pit, to the north of the first, was egg shaped. It measured 4.5m (north-east/south-west) by a maximum of 3.7m. The eastern side was shallowly inclined, and the other sides were steep. The pit base was concave, and the feature had a maximum depth of 0.9m. Four pit fills, similar to those found in the first pit, were observed.
The burnt spread (or very low mound) was a dark grey/black, silty clay with a very high proportion of burnt limestone and sandstone pieces and a moderate amount of charcoal pieces and flecks. The stone was typically angular, with a diameter of 0.02–0.05m.
A grey clay deposit with occasional burnt stone was observed at the south-east of the spread. This layer was 0.04m thick and was sandwiched between burnt stone deposits. It seems, therefore, that the burnt spread was constructed in stages.
No artefacts were recovered during the excavation.
The excavation revealed two troughs, probably associated with fulacht fiadh activity. The two large pits may have served as sumps or wells to capture and control groundwater for the fulacht. Burnt stone on the site, probably accumulated over a considerable period of time (given the large size of the spread), was waste from the fulacht process. Two smaller burnt stone spreads were recorded within 250m north-east of the site, and two further, unexcavated burnt mounds were seen in fields to the south. At present it is speculated that the features are likely to be Bronze Age or Iron Age. Radiocarbon determinations are anticipated to provide a closer chronology.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
