County: Dublin Site name: BALLYCULLEN (Site 2), Oldcourt
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1374
Author: Ellinor Larsson, Arch-Tech Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 711692m, N 726216m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.274498, -6.325355
The excavation of a fulacht fiadh was carried out in September 2002 in Ballycullen, Oldcourt, before the construction of a residential development. The site had been identified during monitoring (see No. 639, Excavations 2002, 02E0190 ext.).
Site 2 was at the 103m contour on high ground on the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. It lay on an area of undulating ground, into which cut features and deposits had been inserted. A spread of fire-shattered sandstone mixed with charcoal-rich soil was revealed in the centre of the site, covering an area of 9m by 7m. The spread was near a dried-up streambed/channel, into which one of the two troughs was inserted and burnt stone material had been deposited. The natural channel is likely to have provided water to the trough, which was situated directly to the west of a hearth/area of burning. Both troughs appeared to have been wood lined, and charcoal was assembled for dating analysis. Several post-holes, pits and areas of burning were associated with the fulacht fiadh.
The finds retrieved are all of probable prehistoric date; all were of flint, with the exception of two sherds of post-medieval pottery, found in the silt that capped a major part of the burnt stone material. One small sherd of Neolithic/Beaker pottery was retrieved in association with a cut in the initial examination of the site during monitoring.
32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
