County: Clare Site name: Smithstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL022–029 Licence number: 07E0935
Author: Fran Wilkinson, Tempus Archaeology, Cregg, Craughwell, Co. Galway.
Site type: Fulachta fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 540953m, N 663562m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.719940, -8.874016
Two spreads of burnt material were excavated in advance of the construction of a new light engineering industrial building at Smithstown, Shannon. The first feature comprised an irregular spread of burnt material measuring some 12m in maximum length (east–west) by 6m and 0.2–0.6m in maximum depth. It extended beyond the limit of the excavation, to the west. Two subcircular pits, possible troughs, were located under the burnt material. Timber-impressed peaty clay around the edge of one pit suggested that the feature was originally timber-lined.
Located about 40m to the north-east was a second, oval-shaped spread of burnt material measuring 11m (north–south) by 7m and 0.2m in maximum depth. This material overlay three cuts comprising subcircular pits, possible troughs and a stone-lined pit, a possible oven or ‘roasting pit’.
