What is recorded here

Hot stones cracked and hissed in Grig water four thousand years before the first Christian century touched the same slope. People may have gathered there to cook, clean or celebrate, while the low land between drumlins held their warmth long after they left. The older fire and the younger fire are not one event; they are separate hands using the same generous earth.

Fulacht fia: Situated towards the bottom of an E-facing slope in a low-lying landscape between drumlins. An archaeological excavation (05E0783) carried out as part of the N2 Castleblayney to Clontibret road realignment scheme at a site known as Grig 2 uncovered the remains of three possible cooking troughs. The pits were shallow and contained concentrations of burnt material. A charcoal sample from the largest pit (dims 2.6m x 2.4m D 0.3m) produced a C14 date of 3755+-30 BP, which calibrates to 2290-2030 BC. Another trough (MO019-049----), located c. 15m to the SE produced a date in the first millennium AD. It is probable that two fulachta fia, widely separated in time, are involved, each being paired with a trough of the same time period from the two fulachta fia (MO019-050----; MO019-050001-) located c. 130m to the S. (Halpin B. 2008; 2010, 6, 11, XII). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 22 June 2018

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