County: Limerick Site name: CLARINA: Ballybrown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1603
Author: Ken Wiggins, Judith Carroll & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 550259m, N 653968m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.634657, -8.734836
The site was discovered following topsoil-stripping for the first phase of a 35-acre residential development at Clarina village. It was located on flat ground near the corner of a field behind the Maxol filling station, on the northern side of the N69 Limerick to Foynes road, c. 5.5km west of Limerick city and c. 1.5km south-east of Carrigogunnell Castle, the best-known antiquity in the locality.
The archaeological area had maximum dimensions of c. 30m east-west by c. 20m. It was a large, roughly circular spread of dark-grey silty clay containing numerous pieces of heat-shattered sandstone. Excavations took place between 29 September and 15 October 2003. Excavation revealed a trough in the subsoil, measuring 4.72m east-west by 3.22m by up to 1.04m deep. The primary fill was black silty clay containing a high percentage of burnt sandstone; the secondary fill contained two wooden stakes and many other fragments of worked wood. An ancillary pit measured 1.32m east-west by 1.32m by up to 0.4m deep. The two fills contained some fragments of wood and burnt stone.
The site, which appears to be the levelled remains of a fulacht fiadh, also contained a scattering of smaller pit-like features contemporary with the trough. It was also criss-crossed by a network of narrow drainage channels of modern origin.
13 Anglesea Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2
