County: Wexford Site name: Lacken 3
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E004125
Author: Liam Hackett, Headland Archaeology (Ireland) Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 676412m, N 627478m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.393503, -6.877286
Excavations at Lacken 3 were undertaken on behalf of Wexford County Council as part of the Stage (iii) archaeological services contract prior to the commencement of construction of the N25 New Ross bypass road scheme.
Excavation revealed evidence of fulacht fiadh activity in the form of a subrectangular trough which measured 2.74m long (north-east/south-west), 1.68m wide and 0.38–0.52m deep. It had a total of 59 stake-holes clustered in the base and sides of its cut. These varied in plan from oval to subcircular and ranged between 0.04m and 0.17m in length, 0.03m and 0.16m in width and 0.05m and 0.29m in depth. Overlying these stake-holes and filling the trough was a black sandy silt deposit which contained frequent charcoal and heat-affected stones.
A pit and two post-holes were located in close proximity to the aforementioned trough. The pit was subcircular in plan, measuring 0.7m by 0.6m by 0.2m deep; its fill contained occasional charcoal and stones within its soil matrix. The post-holes were oval to circular in plan and measured between 0.16m and 0.22m in length, 0.16m and 0.2m in width and 0.09m and 0.18m in depth. Their fills comprised silty sand with occasional charcoal.
A small, heavily truncated and disturbed stony spread was identified overlying the features described above. This deposit was light-brown in colour and measured 2.25m in length (east–west) by 1.1m in width, with a maximum depth of 0.3m.
Two post-medieval drainage ditches were also identified at Lacken 3. These directly truncated the aforementioned trough and spread.
