County: Monaghan Site name: GRIG (2)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0783
Author: Brian Halpin, National Archaeological Services
Site type: Burnt spread and Kiln
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 679686m, N 821143m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.133138, -6.780681
An excavation in advance of road development was carried out at Grig, Clontibret, Co. Monaghan, as part of the N2 Castleblayney–Clontibret road realignment scheme. A rescue excavation was carried out from 7 to 13 August 2005. The site originally encompassed a circular area of charcoal-rich soil and heat-affected stones with an associated area of disturbance. This site was the remains of two possible Bronze Age cooking pits (pot-boilers) and associated features, with numerous modern field drains running throughout. The main features were shallow subcircular and sub-oval pits with heavy concentrations of burnt material normally associated with a fulacht fiadh. There were no finds associated with them. There were a number of associated irregular-shaped shallow features which are believed to have dated from the same period of activity.
Due to the scarcity of features on the site as a whole, it is not believed that the site was heavily utilised in antiquity. Excavations of a site located c. 200m to the south produced a fulacht fiadh with two individual troughs (see No. 1269, Excavations 2005, 05E0784).
Post-medieval pottery and a spindle whorl were recovered during the initial clean-back of the site. Specialist reports are forthcoming.
Ard Solas, Lacken, Co. Wicklow
