County: Kerry Site name: BALLYBEG, Dingle
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1705
Author: Simon Ó Faoláin, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 446015m, N 601738m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.146001, -10.250002
Planning permission was granted to Whiteoak Developments Ltd to construct thirteen dwellings with associated services a short distance north-east of Dingle town. Testing was carried out by Isabel Bennett in October 2002 (see No. 781, Excavations 2002, 02E1606). A possible fulacht fiadh was uncovered in the south-eastern quadrant of the field. Eachtra was subsequently engaged to carry out the excavation of this feature.
The work took place in November 2002. The topsoil around the possible fulacht was removed by a mechanical excavator with a flat bucket. Black, burnt material was encountered, but the area that was dug out immediately filled with water, obscuring the view. This was a problem noted in the previous test-trenching operations by Bennett and made the establishment of the extent of the burnt material difficult. However, by the next day much of the water had drained from the trench, allowing the feature to be recorded.
Two spreads of mixed burnt stone and black, charcoal-rich soil, similar to that generally found on fulachta fiadh, were revealed. One of the spreads measured 4.9m by 2.4m and was only 0.1m deep. The other, which lay 1.9m away, measured 2.1m by 0.45m and was of a similar depth to the first. Both spreads were sampled, and no further deposits or cut features were found. The spreads came down directly onto the clay natural in places and in others onto a thin layer of peat that lay on the natural. No artefacts were recovered, and nothing resembling a fulacht trough was encountered.
It seems that this feature, if it was a fulacht fiadh, was a very small one, as only a thin deposit of burnt material was found.
3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry
