Fulacht fia in Kilfinny — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Kilfinny holds a shallow burnt mound where hot stones crashed into water, marking three phases of human activity before agriculture buried the truth. The troughs never cooked food; they sustained heat for purposes the stones no longer speak. Two drains later cut across the site, filling with slipped mound material as people levelled the ground for fields. What happened at that heat remains unknown, but the repeated building and abandoning suggests the place mattered enough to return to and leave behind.

The site was excavated by Emer Dennehy (02E0559) during monitoring of topsoil-stripping along Section 3 of the Bord Gáis Éireann pipeline from Goatisland, Co. Limerick, to Gort, Co. Galway. 'The site was revealed as a shallow, subcircular burnt mound, measuring 21m north-south and composed of 80% fire-cracked limestone to a depth of 0.22m. The site was heavily disturbed in the south-east by two large, filled drains. There were three separate phases of activity at the site. Phase I began with the excavation and use of two troughs. Trough 1 was subcircular, measuring 1.7m north-south by 1.4m by 0.48m deep. Trough 2 was sub-oval, measuring 1.53m by 0.96m by 0.53m deep. Also associated with this phase were three pot-boilers, all of which were subcircular, the largest being 1.3m long, 0.9m wide and 0.32m deep. All of the troughs from this phase were filled with fire-cracked limestone. Phase II of the site is represented by the excavation of a subrectangular trough, measuring 2.5m north-south by 0.7m by 0.34m deep. The fill was predominantly large pieces of burnt limestone. Phase III is defined by the cutting of two large, linear, filled drains that ran across the south-eastern corner of the site. Both of these features have a primary fill of burnt limestone, showing slippage from the surrounding mound. Given the amount of burnt limestone in the fill, it was concluded that the troughs associated with Phase I were not used for the open cooking of foodstuffs. The pot-boilers contained a quantity of sandstone and limestone, showing that they were used to provide sustained heat. The Phase II trough (with its limestone fill) was not used for cooking. With both drains being filled with burnt-mound material (indicating slippage), it can be concluded that the area of the mound must have been levelled for agricultural use and would originally have had a much greater depth.' The above description is posted on the web at the following internet address: http://www.excavations.ie/ (accessed 22 August 2012). Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 22 August 2012

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