County: Kildare Site name: KILMOREBRANNAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1075
Author: Deirdre Murphy, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 674311m, N 740509m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.409478, -6.882311
Testing was carried out before construction of the proposed M4 Kinnegad–Enfield–Kilcock Motorway Scheme. In February 2002, during centre-line testing of the Donadea road realignment carried out by Donald Murphy (see No. 987, Excavations 2002, 02E0102), a fulacht spread was identified. The site was designated Kilmorebrannagh 1 and was excavated in July–August 2002. To resolve the site a substantial area of ground measuring 30m by 35m within the road-take was stripped of peat and topsoil. A series of features was identified and excavated.
A fulacht spread comprising fire-cracked, blackened sandstone measuring 13m by 21m was exposed directly overlying the natural gravels. It had a maximum depth of 0.06m, and when it was removed a series of pits and two troughs were exposed. Both troughs contained lining timbers in situ that were removed for analysis and preservation. One of the troughs was subcircular, measuring 1.84m by 1.61m by 0.14m deep, and the second was rectangular, measuring 1.78m by 1.62m by 0.26m deep. Near the troughs was an area of highly oxidised orange clay that may have been the location of a hearth. Four pits, all subcircular, were identified near the troughs and were similarly filled with fulacht material. No finds of a prehistoric nature were identified during excavation.
The site had been largely destroyed by recent agricultural activity, and numerous plough furrows and land drains cut through the fulacht spread. The results of radiocarbon dating will provide an accurate date for activity at this site.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
