County: Wicklow Site name: RAMPERE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0472
Author: Melanie McQuade, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Burnt mounds
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 686363m, N 691814m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.970129, -6.714260
A fulacht fiadh and a burnt mound were identified during monitoring by Sinéad Phelan of a landfill extension (see No. 1710 above, 05E0404).
Site 1: fulacht fiadh
This site was located on low-lying land (124.04m OD) to the south of Rampere Stream. A natural silty peat layer at the eastern end of the site represents a silted-up watercourse and three phases of activity were identified. The northern extent of the site was not impacted upon by the development and has been preserved in situ.
Phase 1 was represented by two post-holes on the south-eastern end of the site and a deposit of grey silty clay with flecks of charcoal. The post-holes were 0.25m in diameter and 0.15m deep. The clay deposit was between 0.1m and 0.4m deep and contained 35 pieces of worked flint. Phase 2 was characterised by a large mound of burnt material that had built up from the use of two troughs. Trough 1 was subrectangular in plan (1.7m by 1.4m) and cut the silt deposit. It was lined by seventeen large flagstones and was 0.35m deep. A small mound of redeposited natural to the immediate north of the trough was cut by three post-holes. The post-holes ranged from 0.08m to 0.28m in diameter. Trough 2 was a sub-square-shaped pit measuring 3m wide and 0.7m deep. The exposed part of the mound was 19.05m by 15.55m and between 0.1m and 0.5m deep. It was sealed by two layers of silty clay. A Middle Bronze Age date was obtained for this site (1607–1570 cal BC).
Site 2: burnt mound
Site 2 was located 50m to the south-west of Site 1 at 123.73m OD. Three phases of activity were identified. The initial activity was evident from a number of worked flints recovered from silty peat beneath the mound. The burnt-mound material built up during Phase 2. It was roughly circular in plan, with a diameter of 6m, and was between 0.05m and 0.25m deep. A spring at the north-eastern end of the mound probably provided the original source of water used by the occupants of the site. Phase 3 was represented by a deposit of gravel, which sealed the mound. Two struck pieces of flint were recovered from the mound material. No evidence for a trough was uncovered at this site. The burnt mound was sealed by sandy gravel that was between 0.2m and 0.4m deep. Two struck pieces of flint were recovered from the silt, which may have been deposited as a result of flooding of the site.
