Fulacht fia in Fermoy — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Hot water hissed in stone troughs on that hill above Fermoy while people tended the fire and drank from the nearby spring. They cut new trenches through old ones, kept the stones shaking with heat, and left behind a mound of shattered rock and charcoal. The work repeated across generations until the site fell silent. A road project opened the hill in 2003, exposing three nested troughs and at least forty small pits that may have held wooden posts.

On the summit of a hill, to the N of a spring well. A mound (13m E-W; 12m N-S; max. D 0.3m) of heat-shattered stones and charcoal-enriched soil was discovered during archaeological testing in advance of the construction of the N8 Rathcormac-Fermoy Bypass and was excavated in 2003. Excavation revealed three successive subrectangular inter-cutting troughs associated with the mound. The main fill of the earliest trough has been radiocarbon dated to 2400-2140 cal. BC. A large concentration of at least 40 pits and stake-holes occurred under the mound. The pits had average dimensions of 0.4m x 0.3m x 0.15m and contained charcoal-flecked clay fills. Many of the pits contained stones at their bases and the excavator notes that they may have been post-holes though but no pattern was discernible to suggest the presence of a house or other structure. Two other fulachtaí fia (CO035-130----, CO035-131----) lay c. 10m to the SW and c. 15m to the E, respectively. (O'Connell 2006h, 59, Burnt Mound 1; 2006i, 63-4) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.