County: Cork Site name: Curraheen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0804
Author: Maurice F. Hurley, 6 Clarence Court, St. Luke’s, Cork.
Site type: Fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 560945m, N 569028m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.872076, -8.567151
The northern part of a previously unrecorded fulacht fiadh was excavated during construction of a gas pipeline from Curraheen to Lehenaghmore to the south-west of Cork city. The site was located on low-lying ground (18m OD) at the southern edge of the Lee Valley c. 19m west of a ring-barrow (08E0802, No. 223, above), and c. 229m east of a Bronze Age enclosure (08E0803, No. 224, above) also excavated as part of this project. A second fulacht fiadh (08E0665, No. 164, above) was excavated c. 250m to the south-east of this site. The site comprised a hearth pit and a channel leading south from it to a larger pit or trough which extended south beyond the excavation limit. All the features were filled with scorched, heat-shattered stones and charcoal-rich soil.
At the northern limit of the site a circular hearth (0.94m diameter by 0.12m depth) with gently sloping sides and a relatively flat base was cut into the natural underlying clay and at the base was a fine gravel. A shallow pit (0.63m north–south by 0.7m by 0.08m diameter) was located 4m west of the hearth. The hearth was connected to the main spread of burnt material to the south by a 2.4m-long channel (1–1.5m wide, max. depth 0.33m). The main spread of burnt material extended south beyond the pipeline corridor. The burnt material was in a cut which decreased in width from 7m to 2.6m east–west at 1.78m below the original ground surface level. Natural gravel was present at the base of the cut/pit.
