County: Louth Site name: NEWTOWNBALREGAN (Site 33)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0817
Author: Avril Hayes, Aegis Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 701959m, N 808505m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.015680, -6.444244
This site was identified during monitoring for the M1 Dundalk western bypass (04E0335). The spread of burnt material was scattered quite thinly in patches across the site. The use of bulldozers during topsoil-stripping truncated it slightly, but it is likely that it had also been levelled through agricultural activity in the past. The site consisted primarily of a patchy spread of burnt stone set in a burnt silty sand matrix. It measured 7m by 7m and had a maximum depth of 0.4m. This was identified as a levelled fulacht fiadh. Excavation of this material revealed a trough. It was a shallow sub-oval feature measuring 1.5m by 1m. A possible post-hole or pit feature was also found beneath the burnt material, but the relationship of this feature to the fulacht fiadh could not be clearly determined. No samples or artefacts were retrieved that could provide a date for the site.
16 Avondale Court, Corbally, Limerick
