County: Mayo Site name: DEVLIS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1777
Author: Bernard Guinan
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 550472m, N 779017m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.758413, -8.751067
During the monitoring of topsoil removal as part of the Ballyhaunis Water-Supply Augmentation Scheme (No. 1374, Excavations 2002, 02E0522), an irregular deposit of burnt stone was discovered in the townland of Devlis. No surface evidence of a site was visible before the start of development works in the area, and an excavation was carried out in December 2002.
The spread of burnt stone was irregular in shape and measured 7.6m (north–south) by 5.5m. The site was beneath a stone field boundary. The burnt stone spread was a thin deposit, only 0.15m at its deepest. It contained heat-shattered sandstone in a black sooty matrix and was disturbed by a large land drain (2.05m wide and 0.45m deep) associated with the field boundary, which ran east–west. A series of shallow furrows running parallel to the land drain also disturbed the site.
Excavation uncovered a shallow boiling pit cut into the slope of a sandy natural horizon. The subrectangular pit was 2.08m long and 1.01m wide, with a maximum depth of 0.4m. It was filled with heat-shattered sandstone in a charcoal matrix and was situated in the south-western part of the site.
Coosan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
