County: Louth Site name: ROOSKEY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0013
Author: Finola O’Carroll, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 719017m, N 810621m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.031040, -6.183263
Monitoring took place of the construction of a private dwelling at Rooskey, Carlingford, Co. Louth. The site is 200m south of SMR 8:18, a priory, and 8:17, a souterrain.
The site is on high ground c. 3km from the town of Carlingford, on the side of a hill facing north-east over Carlingford Lough. There is a stream at the foot of the slope, which is separated from the site by an access track to farm buildings. The hill rises c. 12m from the level of the stream.
Monitoring of the groundworks took place on 7 and 8 January 2002. The topsoil was stripped from the site using a 2m-wide ditching bucket attached to a mechanical, tracked digger. The topsoil was deepest in the lower part of the driveway, a maximum of 1m. Over the remainder of the footprint of the house and garage the topsoil, a sandy clay loam with few stones, ranged from 0.35m deep on the lower part of the hill to 0.2m deep near the top.
A spread of burnt stones and blackened soil was uncovered in the lower part of the driveway, 20m from the present course of the stream. The feature was uncovered at a depth of between 0.6m (east) and 0.45–0.5m (west) on the north side of the driveway and 0.88m (east) and 0.9m (west) on the south side. The removal of topsoil for the driveway skimmed the upper 0.1–0.15m from the feature, but this upper part was mixed with topsoil. The required level for the driveway rose beyond the north-west side of the feature, in line with the overall site gradient, and this side of the feature remained covered.
As exposed, the feature consisted of a crescentic or semicircular spread of burnt stones, identified as dolerite (S. Mandal, pers. comm.), mixed with charcoal-stained soil. No finds were identified within this. The spread had maximum dimensions of 11m by 5m, and the northern side of the driveway overlay it at its widest point. It was clear that it continued beyond this point to the north but only for a very small distance on the opposite side.
The site appears to be the stone and soil components of a fulacht fiadh, presumably of prehistoric date. Given its location 20m south of a stream, it is likely that it is a fulacht fiadh and that there is an accompanying trough immediately to the north of the spread.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
