What is recorded here

Hot stones shattered marble and fired the trough, proving the site worked rather than waiting to be guessed. People may have heated water for washing, cooking or ritual, while the stone pit beside the hearth marked the violence of making heat. The marshy ridge kept the place half-hidden until modern works opened it, turning ancient fire into a visible scar.

At the interface between a low-lying marshy area and pasture, at the break of slope of a N-facing ridge. A shallow irregular spread (12.5m E-W; 10m N-S; D 0.02-0.03m) of heat-shattered stones and charcoal-enriched soil was discovered in 2007 during archaeological testing in advance of the construction of a gas-fired electricity generating station at Whitegate oil refinery (Purcell 2007). Excavation revealed that the burnt material covered a small hearth and a rectangular unlined trough cut into outcropping shale and sandstone bedrock. The trough was filled with burnt material. A stone-lined pit, which produced evidence of in situ burning, truncated the SW quadrant of the spread and was located 0.6m NW of the hearth. Excavation also revealed that the fulacht fia was disturbed by land drainage works and was cut by a possible corn-drying kiln (CO088-125----). (pers. comm. Tony Cummins) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009

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