County: Laois Site name: MORETT
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0804
Author: Eoghan Moore, Prospect House, Dunsrim, Scotshouse, Co. Monaghan, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 653755m, N 703667m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.080909, -7.197674
A fulacht fiadh at Morett, Coolbanagher, Co. Laois, identified during centre-line testing of the proposed Heath–Mayfield motorway by Ros Ó Maoldúin (No. 1052 above, 03E0128), was excavated.
The site was composed primarily of burnt-stone fragments, charcoal and burnt soil/peat. The burnt mound measured approximately 12m (maximum) north–south by 8.5m by 0.3m (maximum) in depth. A series of artificial pits, exterior to the area occupied by the burnt material of the fulacht fiadh, was uncovered lying within the natural white marl and another series of artificial pits was uncovered beneath it.
Two of the pits constituted the trough and the waterhole of the fulacht fiadh. The waterhole was exterior to the area occupied by the burnt mound, while the trough was lying partly beneath the burnt mound and partly outside it.
A large wooden pile had been driven into the natural marl at the bottom of the waterhole. It is thought that the pile may constitute the remains of an upright for a wooden platform utilised to facilitate the collection of water from the waterhole.
The site was situated in a low-lying field that, until recent land reclamation, had been a wet meadow/marsh area.
