County: Mayo Site name: GORTAROE (II)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E1042 ext.
Author: Richard Gillespie
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 500207m, N 785319m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.807822, -9.515154
This fulacht fiadh was 10m west of the Neolithic house described in Excavations 2001 (No. 912). It consisted of a mound of heat-fractured stones in a charcoal-rich matrix, which overlay a circular trough. The area adjacent to the Neolithic house produced some stray finds, but no archaeological were features present.
The fulacht fiadh lay on the lower slope of a large drumlin, with the mound resting on both the boulder clay and the edge of the peat. It was irregular in plan, measuring 7.3m north-east/south-west by 6.7m, and had a maximum thickness of 0.4m.
The trough, cut into the boulder clay immediately above the peat, was filled with a combination of mound material and peat. It had a bowl-shaped cut, was subcircular in plan (1.2m by 1.5m) and had a depth of 0.3m. Half of the base of the trough retained the remains of a rough wood lining. It had maximum dimensions of 0.8m by 0.63m and was 0.11m thick. It consisted of four main timbers laid north–south on the base of the trough, over which were four smaller fragments of wood laid at right angles to them.
To ensure that the archaeology in this area near the pipeline was fully resolved, an area measuring 5m by 15m was excavated adjacent to the site of the Neolithic house and to the south-east of the fulacht fiadh excavation. Some stray lithics, which were probably ploughed out from the Neolithic house, were recovered from this part of the excavation, but no significant features were present.
Westport Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
