What is recorded here

Hot stones shattered in water, filling the Castletown pit with steam and noise. People likely cooked meat, cleaned tools or gathered beside the trough before the site vanished under soil and forgetting. The Arcon Mines exposed the blackened remains in 1999, returning a kitchen or ritual place to human memory after centuries of silence.

Identified during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping and associated plant excavations being carried out at the Arcon Mines, Galmoy, Co. Kilkenny, between November 1999 and March 2000. Initially identified as a large spread (dims. c. 14m N-S; c. 16m E-W) of blackened and fire-shattered stone immediately beneath the topsoil. A sub-rectangular trough (excavated dims. 1.5m x 1.5m; D 0.4-0.6m), orientated roughly NW-SE, was located relatively centrally within the spread (Coughlan 2002, 173-4). Though no evidence of any trough lining survived, three stake-holes in the base at the SE end may have been used to support plank/timber lining. The trough was filled with blackened and fire-shattered stone, very similar in content to the general spread of the mound. This deposit would appear to have represented the deliberate backfilling of the trough. A sub-rectangular hearth area (dims. 1.38m x 1m) was located at the SE end of the trough. A large irregular-shaped oblong pit (dims. 5.3m x 2.3m), of unknown date and function, was recorded to the NW of the trough and hearth. It was shallowest at the NW end (D 0.3m) and deepened at the SE end (D 0.7m). (Coughlan 2002, 173-4). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 9 May 2016

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