What is recorded here

Hot stones crashed into water, filling Chapelbride with steam and life. People gathered there to cook, clean or celebrate before the road took the land. The trench still holds charcoal and memory, waiting for hands brave enough to imagine the heat.

Located at the bottom of an E-facing slope and on the N side of what had been a small pond. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1054) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 3 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1223) identified a spread of broken and burnt stone that was fully resolved (E003168) by D. Gallagher in November 2006 as Chapelbride 5 (excavations.ie 2006:1531). The spread of broken and burnt stone (dims 11m x 10m; T 0.1-0.15m) overlay two subrectangular troughs (dims 2.25m x 1m; D 0.16m: dims 2.5m x 1m; D 0.16m) that were placed c. 2m apart and were filled with the same dark grey, silty clay with frequent charcoal inclusions and heat-affected stones. The mound also overlay a linear channel (L 2m; Wth 0.6m; D 0.15m) c. 3m to the S and another linear channel (L 8.5m; Wth 1.75m; D 0.18m) c. 1m to the N of the troughs and both channels had some burnt stone material in their fills. (Gallagher and Ginn 2008, 2-3) About 7m N of the burnt mound a subrectangular cut feature (dims 1.99m x 1.6m; D 0.4m) with four fills, all containing some broken and burnt stone was also probably a trough. Samples of alder and ash from these layers produced C14 dates of 1612-1433 (Beta 2471137) and 1687-1496 cal. BC (Beta 2471139), placing it in the Middle Bronze Age. Nearby is a circular, flat-bottomed trough (diam. 1.7m; D 0.3m) with burnt stone in its fill, and it is probable that the burnt mound extended over these originally. Three similar pits (dims 1.15m x 1m; D 0.6-0.16m to 1.45m x 1.17m; D 0.1m) c. 30m NE of the fulacht fia also had fills with burnt stone material, but two smaller pits (dims 0.85m x 0.4-0.5m; D 0.12-0.16m: dims 1.3m x 0.8-1.2m; D 0.13m) a little further E had inclusions of hazel charcoal that produced C14 dates of 2465-2206 cal. BC (Beta 247240) and 2195-1939 cal. BC (Beta 247138) respectively. No artefacts were recovered from any of the features. (ibid. 3-4) See the attached plan from Gallagher and Ginn (2008, fig. 8) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022

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