What is recorded here

Hot stones and dripping water may have filled the depression before people forgot the trough itself. The lost kitchen still breathes beneath Marshes Upper, waiting for hands reckless enough to heat the earth and feed the living.

An area of archaeological potential was identified during testing undertaken in advance of the construction of a nursing school building at Dundalk Institute of Technology (Excavation Licence No. 03E1109) (Phelan 2006, 337). Full excavation (Excavation Licence No. 03E1509) revealed 'a number of fire-pits filled with burnt-mound material, a natural depression whose base and lip were metalled along one side, several post- and stake-holes, and a number of irregular pits and spreads containing sediment.' (Frazer 2006, 337). No definite evidence for a trough was found leading the excavator to suggest that the fire pits may have been used an 'earth oven', a dry variant of a fulacht trough. (Frazer 2006, 337-8) References: Phelan, S. 2006 Marshes Upper, Dundalk Post-holes; burnt spreads. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2003: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 337 (No. 1263). Bray. Wordwell Frazer, W. 2006 Marshes Upper, Possible prehistoric 'earth oven'. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2003: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 337-8 (No. 1264). Bray. Wordwell Compiled by: Claire Breen Date of upload: 8 December 2011

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