County: Kerry Site name: FARRANAKILLA, Dingle
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0438
Author: Michael Connolly, Kerry County Council
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 444326m, N 601156m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.140301, -10.274394
Five machine trenches and some shovel tests of low mounds were undertaken in a proposed carpark location at Farranakilla on the northern side of Dingle Harbour. The plot comprises two adjoining fields and four trenches were excavated in the more easterly field, with one in the larger, more westerly, field. This was due to the fact that mounds were more clearly visible in the larger field and had been identified in the original impact assessment. These were shovel tested.
Two of the trenches in the easterly field revealed truncated mounds/spreads of fire-shattered stone, charcoal and blackened soil, which were interpreted as the basal layers of truncated fulachta fiadh. In one case, the material exposed could be related to a 0.18m-high mound abutting the trench and measuring 7.4m by 5.6m.
Two shovel tests on visible low mounds close to the eastern boundary of the plot confirmed that these too were composed of similar material. They measured 4.4m by 2.4m and 6.8m by 3.5m, though only remaining to a height of 0.25m in the case of the larger site.
Two extant mounds had been identified in the western field during the walkover for the archaeological impact assessment and these were also shovel tested. This confirmed that these were also composed of fire-shattered stone in a matrix of black soil and charcoal. These larger sites measured 8.5m by 7.5m and 6m by 5.9m, respectively, and both remained to over 0.4m in height.
It is also worth noting that aerial photography revealed the presence of a large oval enclosure of indeterminate date, approximately 170m in maximum diameter, surrounding Farranakilla House, only 40m to the north of the nearest fulacht fiadh
County Buildings, Tralee, Co. Kerry
