Fulacht fia in Portraine Demesne — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

One is tempted to picture a woman standing at the water's edge, heating stones until they sang, then dropping them into the trough to bring clean heat into a humble home. The fulacht fia in Portraine Demesne is no grand palace, but a small oval pit, 1.6m long and 0.4m deep, buried in low-lying ground and packed with fire-cracked stone and charcoal-rich clay. A hazel charcoal sample dated it to 2272-2037 cal. BC, placing its use in the Early Bronze Age. What seems modest in measurement may have been central to daily life, a hidden kitchen of steam and warmth on the edge of a settlement now lost.

This monument was subject to geophysical survey (Licence no. 08R029) and excavation (Licence no. 10E0121) in advance of the Portrane, Donabate and Lusk Waste Water Treatment scheme. Located on low-lying ground this monument consisted of an oval trough (1.6m x 1.23m, 0.4m deep) filled by charcoal rich silty clay with a high frequency of fire cracked stone. A sample of hazel charcoal returned an Early Bronze age date, 2272-2037 cal. BC. The burnt mound material associated with the fulacht fia survived as three thin spreads c. 3.3m N of the trough (McQuade 2011, 24). Compiled by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 5 February 2015

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