County: Louth Site name: RATHMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 06E0674
Author: James McKee, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 700276m, N 808549m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.016405, -6.469894
A fulacht fiadh was revealed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping (see AD19, Excavations 2006, 06E0142) along the route of a gas pipeline from the existing BGE facilities in Gormanstown, Co. Meath, to an interconnecting point with the north–west pipeline to the north of Belfast at Ballyalbanagh, Co. Antrim. The site extended out from the western side of the 25m-wide route corridor, on an area of relatively high but level pasture.
The irregular spread of grey, charcoal-flecked silty clay with heat-shattered sandstone and large rounded stones was severely truncated by ploughing and a series of cultivation furrows that ran north-east/south-west across the site. A modern north-west/south-east field boundary ditch was located on the north side of the site and cut across the cultivation furrows. The exposed area of the spread measured c. 11m east–west by 10m and was up to 0.3m deep. It appeared that the large stones had been displaced by ploughing, as no discernible pattern could be observed. A hollow scraper, five stone pounders and one sherd of prehistoric pottery were recovered from the spread.
A subrectangular trough measuring c. 2.4m north-east/south-west by c. 1.4m by 0.36m deep was revealed to the north-west of the spread. The trough had almost vertical sides, a flat base and six stake-holes up to 0.26m wide and 0.36m deep, one in each corner and two midway along the northern and southern sides. A subcircular fire-pit, c. 1.4m in diameter and 0.2m deep, with steep sides and a flat base, was located on the north-east corner of the trough. Two metres to the east of this an oval fire-pit, c. 1.5m east–west by c. 1.3m by 0.3m deep, was cut by a second oval fire-pit, c. 1.2m east–west by c. 1m by 0.3m deep, with a large flat burnt stone on the base and two stone pounders in the charcoal-rich basal fill. A partially stone-lined subcircular pit, c. 1.8m in diameter by 0.3m deep, lay 2.5m to the east of the fire-pits. The pit was filled with charcoal-rich clay and large burnt stones, with two burnt flat stones on the base and a vertical stone on the west side, suggesting that it functioned as an oven or roasting pit. A shallow subcircular fire-pit, c. 1m in diameter and 0.24m deep, cut the north-east side of the oven and contained sherds from a single coarse pottery vessel.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
