County: Longford Site name: MULLAGHAVORNEEN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 13:52 Licence number: 03E1428
Author: Christopher Read, North West Archaeological Services Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 612227m, N 772906m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.705703, -7.814799
The proposed development site at Mullaghavorneen is located just outside Longford town. The proposed development consists of an extension to a quarry. The site consists of a large irregular-shaped area, orientated north-west/south-east. It is near a ringfort. No excavation will take place within 50m of the ringfort's outer edge. Monitoring of topsoil-stripping had been undertaken by Eachtra under licence 01E0899. This revealed a number of potential archaeological sites, including seven burnt spreads, possibly fulachta fiadh, and the foundations of an 18th/19th-century cottage. Under the current planning permission, four of these sites, including the cottage foundations, will be impacted upon by quarrying activities.
The assessment included the manual excavation of test-trenches across the three potential fulachta fiadh that will be directly impacted upon by the proposed quarry extension. In addition, the foundations of the 18th/19th-century cottage were revealed. The other four potential fulachta fiadh will not be impacted upon by works proposed as part of this planning application.
Site 1 was investigated through the excavation of a trench measuring 15m by 1m. The other two, Sites 2 and 8, were investigated by trenches measuring 10m by 1m. All three trenches revealed thin deposits of fulacht material, charcoal-enriched clay and heat-shattered stone. It is likely that these fulachta were massively disturbed in antiquity, as they exist only as thin spreads of material. No sign of a trough or related features were revealed in any of the trenches. It is anticipated that the three fulachta will be fully excavated early in 2004.
Cloonfad Cottage, Cloonfad, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim
