County: Dublin Site name: KNOCK (BGE 6/8/2)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0685
Author: Redmond Tobin, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 718670m, N 760332m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.579433, -6.207932
Topsoil-stripping for Section 6 of the Pipeline to the West, from Gormanston to Ballough, revealed the severely truncated remains of a fulacht fiadh. There was little or no surface manifestation of this site, even though the immediate land use is arable. The fulacht fiadh was set in low, marginal land at the juncture of the agricultural soils with the heavy natural clays and overlying peat. A water source lies to the east. The location is inhospitable, with good views in all directions.
The site was evident through the presence of shallow patchy spreads of characteristic firing material, i.e. blackened, charcoal-rich soil and heat-shattered stone fragments. The dispersed scatters extended 2–6m from east to west across the pipeline corridor. The spreads represented the base of a burnt mound retained in the natural clay matrix. It is noteworthy that the land had been cultivated at the time of stripping, and the lack of extensive surface evidence of the mound implies that this site was never of any great substance.
Only two features were recorded, which constituted the full extent of the site. A patchy scatter of firing material, F2, was recorded over the site, measuring 10.2m north–south by 2m and reaching a maximum depth of 0.2m. Its constitution was mainly clay, with a high peat content. The natural did not show any evidence of concentrated burning, suggesting that the extent of the F2 may have been the result of plough action. If this is the case, the burnt mound was originally considerably smaller, implying short-term usage.
A possible trough was identifiable on the surface as a dense concentration of firing material, ovate and measuring 1.2m north–south by 0.6m. It lay 5m north of the main spread and survived to a maximum depth of 0.3m. The trough had a flattened, U-shaped profile, with steep sides and a gradually sloping, concave base. The fill was orange/brown mottled clay with a hint of peat and some fragments of shattered stone and charcoal.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
