County: Limerick Site name: LEAHYS (BGE 3/42/5)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0849
Author: Emer Dennehy, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 524297m, N 651153m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.606357, -9.117661
The site was exposed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping along Section 3 of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West, from Goatisland, Co. Limerick, to Gort, Co. Galway. The site was on the north-facing cusp of a steep hill, commanding extensive views of the surrounding terrain, particularly Foynes Harbour, with County Clare clearly visible to the north. It is one of a complex of three fulachta fiadh on the hilltop (see Nos 1209 and 1112, Excavations 2002, 02E0900 and 02E0848, excavated by Kate Taylor, Martin Jones and Tony Bartlett). The site was a sub-oval mound, measuring 12m north–south by 9.2m by 0.8m deep; it was composed of burnt sandstone in a brown matrix. The mound overlay three intercutting troughs, a pot-boiler and a small pit. Four hearth sites were also identified. Three phases of archaeological activity were present.
Phase I began with the excavation of a rectangular trough measuring 3.5m north-west/ south-east by 1.5m by 0.5m deep. It was associated with a small hearth site. A loose, linear, sandstone revetment, 2.5m long, was situated to the north of the trough; presumably it functioned to retain the mound material.
Phase II was marked by the excavation of a subcircular trough measuring 1.6m east–west by 1.3m by 0.43m deep. This trough was associated with a large hearth site measuring 1.7m north–south by 0.8m.
A pot-boiler (1.14m by 1.04m by 0.13m deep) and a small pit were also identified beneath the mound. These are associated with either Phase I or Phase II, but no closer time frame could be reached.
By the start of Phase III all other excavated features on-site were abandoned and backfilled with the main mound material. The trough associated with this phase was sub-oval, measuring 2.7m north–south by 2.5m, and was 0.6m deep; it was fed by an underlying natural spring. Analysis of the fills indicates that the trough was left open on abandonment, with the spring in its base creating optimum conditions for peat formation.
The size of the troughs and hearths indicates several episodes of prolonged and intensive use of the site. No artefacts were retrieved from the excavation of the site, but a small bone sample was recovered from the Phase II trough. A pollen core was taken from the peat formation in the base of the Phase III trough.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
