2015:134 - Tulla, Clare

Monitoring of topsoil stripping for a new school in Tulla, Co. Clare, exposed several features of interest including a large fulacht fiadh. Three small features were excavated and found to be isolated pits of no exceptional merit. The large fulacht fiadh contained a well-defined trough in its centre.  While there were other features in the general area of the trough only one appears to have possibly been involved in its direct use, an ash spread 1.2m away. This was on a slight rise and may have facilitated the firing of the first fire to heat stones for the trough. This assumes that further firings of the trough threw the upcast directly onto this ash area and therefore sealed it. Further firings for a mound this large would have been extensive and would more than likely have been carried out on the mound of extant fulacht material and therefore would not be distinct from surrounding material as a first firing on virgin grass would. The stake-holes surrounding would not facilitate a person sitting in a temporary shelter as the ash spread would have made the position of even crouching more than awkward.  The trough itself is a fairly standard U-shaped cut in the subsoil with steep sides and a 'step-down' platform on its eastern edge facing the ash spread. Large stones in the base of the trough may have facilitated a person standing on them while retrieving spent stone or handing them up to a person leaning in from the 'step-down'. While it is unusual for many artefacts to be encountered in troughs of fulachtí fiadh, the recovery of an intact animal tooth from the fill is of course welcome. Further analysis of this tooth will shed light on the species of animal that was cooked and may give greater insight into the site as a whole.  A series of large drains ran through the middle of the site. These were seen as a post-medieval element of the site for the purpose of water drainage. These drains, while of a very basic nature, proved effective in drainage during the duration of the excavation. As they would not have been present during the time of the trough's use, it is believed that they were a later addition onto the landscape that at some level changed the surrounding water table.  Although the site has been impacted upon greatly by the imposing of land drains and the topsoil disturbance from agricultural activity, the main feature of the site remained relatively intact.

The true extent of the original mound will never be known. The remains exhibited a truncated mound with an intact trough surviving as well as several pits of various possible functions. Further analysis of the material uncovered will undoubtedly shed further light on the true nature of the site.

Alison McQueen and Associates, Glencar, Killorglin, Co. Kerry.